BO  Gen 

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IE  MISTAKES  OF  MOSE 


BSI225 
.8.147 


C.  P.  Farrell,  Publisher, 

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SOME 


Mistakes  of  Moses. 


BY 


Robert  G.    Ingersoll. 


THE  DESTROYER  OF  WEEDS,   THISTLES   AND    THORNS,    IS   A   BENEFACTOR 
WHETHER  HE  SOWETH  GRAIN   OR  NOT. 


Tenth   Edition. 


NEW  YORK: 

C.    P.   FARRELL,    Publisher, 

1889. 


Jintered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1879,  by 
ROBERT  G.  INGERSOLL 
in  the  Office  of  the  Librarian  of  Congress,  at  Washington,  D.  C. 


ECKLER,   PRINTER,   35  FULTON  ST.,   N.Y. 


<r^@  a  Jf^SnO^k  i  '^^ 


TO 

_^gMRS.   SUE.   M.   FARRELL/^- 

IN    LAW  MY  SISTER, 

AND  IN   FACT  MY   FRIEND, 

THIS  VOLUME, 

AS  A  TOKEN   OF   RESPECT  AND  LOVE, 

IS    DEDICATED. 


PREFACE. 


For  many  years  I  have  regarded  the  Pentateuch 
simply  as  a  record  of  a  barbarous  people,  in 
which  are  found  a  great  number  of  the  ceremonies 
of  savagery,  many  absurd  and  unjust  laws,  and 
thousands  of  ideas  inconsistent  with  known  and 
demonstrated  facts.  To  me  it  seemed  almost  a 
crime  to  teach  that  this  record  was  written  by  inspired 
men  ;  that  slavery,  polygamy,  wars  of  conquest  and 
extermination  were  right,  and  that  there  was  a  time 
when  men  could  win  the  approbation  of  infinite 
Intelligence,  Justice,  and  Mercy,  by  violating 
maidens  and  by  butchering  babes.  To  me  it  seemed 
more  reasonable  that  savage  men  had  made  these 
laws  ;  and  I  endeavored  in  a  lecture,  entitled  "  Some 
Mistakes  of  Moses,"  to  point  out  some  of  the  errors, 


VI  PREFACE. 

contradictions,  and  impossibilities  contained  in  the 
Pentateuch.  The  lecture  was  never  written  and 
consequently  never  delivered  twice  the  same.  On 
several  occasions  it  was  reported  and  published 
without  consent,  and  without  revision.  All  these 
publications  were  grossly  and  glaringly  incorrect. 
As  published,  they  have  been  answered  several 
hundred  times,  and  many  of  the  clergy  are  still 
engaged  in  the  great  work.  To  keep  these  rev- 
erend gentlemen  from  wasting  their  talents  on  the 
mistakes  of  reporters  and  printers,  I  concluded  to 
publish  the  principal  points  in  all  my  lectures  on  this 
subject.  And  here,  it  may  be  proper  for  me  to  say, 
that  arguments  cannot  be  answered  by  personal 
abuse  ;  that  there  is  no  logic  in  slander,  and  that 
falsehood,  in  the  long  run,  defeats  itself.  People 
who  love  their  enemies  should,  at  least,  tell  the  truth 
about  their  friends.  Should  it  turn  out  that  I  am 
the  worst  man  in  the  whole  world,  the  story  of  the 
flood  will  remain  just  as  improbable  as  before,  and 
the  contradictions  of  the  Pentateuch  will  still 
demand  an  explanation. 


PREFACE.  VII 

There  was  a  time  when  a  falsehood,  fulminated 
from  the  pulpit,  smote  like  a  sword  ;  but,  the  supply 
having  greatly  exceeded  the  demand,  clerical  misrep- 
resentation has  at  last  become  almost  an  innocent 
amusement.  Remembering  that  only  a  few  years 
ago  men,  women,  and  even  children,  were  impris- 
oned, tortured  and  burned,  for  having  expressed  in 
an  exceedingly  mild  and  gentle  way,  the  ideas 
entertained  by  me,  I  congratulate  myself  that 
calumny  is  now  the  pulpit's  last  resort.  The  old 
instruments  of  torture  are  kept  only  to  gratify 
curiosity ;  the  chains  are  rusting  away,  and  the 
demolition  of  time  has  allowed  even  the  dungeons  of 
the  Inquisition  to  be  visited  by  light.  The  church, 
impotent  and  malicious,  regrets,  not  the  abuse,  but 
the  loss  of  her  power,  and  seeks  to  hold  by  false- 
hood what  she  gained  by  cruelty  and  force,  by  fire 
and  fear.  Christianity  cannot  live  in  peace  with  any 
other  form  of  faith.  If  that  religion  be  true,  there  is 
but  one  savior,  one  inspired  book,  and  but  one  little 
narrow  grass-grown  path  that  leads  to  heaven. 
Such    a    religion     is    necessarily    uncompromising. 


vm  PREFACE. 

unreasoning,  aggressive  and  insolent.  Christianity 
has  held  all  other  creeds  and  forms  in  infinite  con- 
tempt, divided  the  world  into  enemies  and  friends, 
and  verified  the  awful  declaration  of  its  founder — a 
declaration  that  wet  with  blood  the  sword  he  came  to 
bring,  and  made  the  horizon  of  a  thousand  years 
lurid  with  the  fagots'  flames. 

Too  great  praise  challenges  attention,  and  often 
brings  to  light  a  thousand  faults  that  otherwise  the 
general  eye  would  never  see.  Were  we  allowed  to 
read  the  bible  as  we  do  all  other  books,  we  would 
admire  its  beauties,  treasure  its  worthy  thoughts, 
and  account  for  all  its  absurd,  grotesque  and  cruel 
things,  by  saying  that  its  authors  lived  in  rude, 
barbaric  times.  But  we  are  told  that  it  was  written 
by  inspired  men  ;  that  it  contains  the  will  of  God  ; 
that  it  is  perfect,  pure,  and  true  in  all  its  parts  ;  the 
source  and  standard  of  all  moral  and  religious  truth  ; 
that  it  is  the  star  and  anchor  of  all  human  hope  ;  the 
only  guide  for  man,  the  only  torch  in  Nature's  night. 
These  claims  are  so  at  variance  with  every  known 
recorded  fact,  so   palpably  absurd,  that    every  free, 


PREFACE.  ix 


unbiased  soul  is  forced  to  raise  the  standard  of 
revolt. 

We  read  the  pagan  sacred  books  with  profit  and 
delight.  With  myth  and  fable  we  are  ever  charmed, 
and  find  a  pleasure  in  the  endless  repetition  of  the 
beautiful,  poetic,  and  absurd.  We  find,  in  all  these 
records  of  the  past,  philosophies  and  dreams,  and 
efforts  stained  with  tears,  of  great  and  tender  souls 
who  tried  to  pierce  the  mystery  of  life  and  death,  to 
answer  the  eternal  questions  of  the  Whence  and 
Whither,  and  vainly  sought  to  make,  with  bits  of 
shattered  glass,  a  mirror  that  would,  in  very  truth, 
reflect  the  face  and  form  of  Nature's  perfect  self. 

These  myths  were  born  of  hopes,  and  fears,  and 
tears,  and  smiles,  and  they  were  touched  and  colored 
by  all  there  is  of  joy  and  grief  between  the  rosy 
dawn  of  birth,  and  death's  sad  night.  They  clothed 
even  the  stars  with  passion,  and  gave  to  gods  the 
faults  and  frailties  of  the  sons  of  men.  In  them,  the 
winds  and  waves  were  music,  and  all  the  lakes,  and 
streams,  and  springs, — the  mountains,  woods  and 
perfumed   dells  were   haunted   by  a  thousand   fairy 


X  PREFACE. 

forms.  They  thrilled  the  veins  of  Spring-  with  trem- 
ulous desire  ;  made  tawny  Summer's  billowed  breast 
the  throne  and  home  of  love ;  filled  Autumn's  arms 
with  sun-kissed  grapes,  and  gathered  sheaves  ;  and 
pictured  Winter  as  a  weak  old  king  who  felt,  like 
Lear  upon  his  withered  face,  Cordelia's  tears. 
These  myths,  though  false,  are  beautiful,  and  have 
for  many  ages  and  in  countless  ways,  enriched  the 
heart  and  kindled  thought.  But  if  the  world  were 
taught  that  all  these  things  are  true  and  all  inspired 
of  God,  and  that  eternal  punishment  will  be  the  lot 
of  him  who  dares  deny  or  doubt,  the  sweetest  myth 
of  all  the  Fable  World  would  lose  its  beauty,  and 
become  a  scorned  and  hateful  thing  to  every  brave 
and  thoughtful  man. 

Robert  G.  Ingersoll. 

Washington,  D.  C,  Oct.  7th,  i8yg. 


CONTENTS 


Chapter, 

I.  Some  Mistakes  of  Moses, 

II.  Free  Schools,  - 

III.  The  Politicians, 

IV.  Man  and  Woman,      - 
V.  The  Pentateuch, 

VI.  Monday,         - 

VII.  Tuesday,  ... 

VIII.  Wednesday,  ... 

IX.  Thursday, 

X.  He  made  the  Stars  also, 

XI.  Friday, 

XII.  Saturday,  ... 

XIII.  Let  us  Make  Man, 

XIV.  Sunday,         -  - 

XV.  The  Necessity  for  a  Good  Memory, 

XVI.  The  Garden, 

XVII.  The  Fall, 

XVIII.  Dampness, 

XIX.  Bacchus  and  Babel, 

XX.  Faith  in  Filth,        - 

XXI.  The  Hebrews, 

XXII.  The  Plagues, 

XXIII.  The  Flight, 

XXIV.  Confess  and  Avoid, 
XXV.  "  Inspired"  Slavery, 

XXVI.  "Inspired"  Marriage, 

XXVII.  "Inspired"  War, 

XXVIII.  "Inspired"  Religious  Liberty, 

XXIX.  Conclusion,        -  * 


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Some  Mistakes  of  Moses. 


HE  WHO  ENDEAVORS  TO  CONTROL   THE    MIND    BY  FORCE 
IS  A  TYRANT,  AND  HE  WHO  SUBMITS  IS  A  SLAVE. 

I. 

I  want  to  do  what  little  I  can  to  make  my  country 
truly  free,  to  broaden  the  intellectual  horizon 
of  our  people,  to  destroy  the  prejudices  born  of 
ignorance  and  fear,  to  do  away  with  the  blind  wor- 
ship of  the  ignoble  past,  with  the  idea  that  all  the 
great  and  good  are  dead,  that  the  living  are  totally 
depraved,  that  all  pleasures  are  sins,  that  sighs  and 
groans  are  alone  pleasing  to  God,  that  thought  is 
dangerous,  that  intellectual  courage  is  a  crime,  that 
cowardice  is  a  virtue,  that  a  certain  belief  is  necessary 
to  secure  salvation,  that  to  carry  a  cross  in  this  world 
will  give  us  a  palm  in  the  next,  and  that  we  must 
allow  some  priest  to  be  the  pilot  of  our  souls. 


14  SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES. 

Until  every  soul  is  freely  permitted  to  investigate 
every  book,  and  creed,  and  dogma  for  itself,  the  world 
cannot  be  free.  Mankind  will  be  enslaved  until  there 
is  mental  grandeur  enough  to  allow  each  man  to  have 
his  thought  and  say.  This  earth  will  be  a  paradise 
when  men  can,  upon  all  these  questions  differ,  and 
yet  grasp  each  other's  hands  as  friends.  It  is  amazing 
to  me  that  a  difference  of  opinion  upon  subjects 
that  we  know  nothing  with  certainty  about,  should 
make  us  hate,  persecute,  and  despise  each  other. 
Why  a  difference  of  opinion  upon  predestination,  or 
the  trinity,  should  make  people  imprison  and  burn 
each  other  seems  beyond  the  comprehension  of  man  ; 
and  yet  in  all  countries  where  Christians  have  existed, 
they  have  destroyed  each  other  to  the  exact  extent 
of  their  power.  Why  should  a  believer  in  God  hate 
an  atheist  ?  Surely  the  atheist  has  not  injured  God, 
and  surely  he  is  human,  capable  of  joy  and  pain,  and 
entitled  to  all  the  rights  of  man.  Would  it  not  be 
far  better  to  treat  this  atheist,  at  least,  as  well 
as  he  treats  us  ? 

Christians  tell  me  that  they  love  their  enemies, 
and  yet  all  I  ask  is — not  that  they  love  their  enemies, 
not  that  they  love  their  friends  even,  but  that  they 
treat  those  who  differ  from  them,  with  simple  fairness. 


SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES.  1 5 

We  do  not  wish  to  be  forgiven,  but  we  wish  Christ- 
ians to  so  act  that  we  will  not  have  to  forgive  them. 
If  all  will  admit  that  all  have  an  equal  right  to 
think,  then  the  question  is  forever  solved  ;  but  as 
long  as  organized  and  powerful  churches,  pretending 
to  hold  the  keys  of  heaven  and  hell,  denounce  every 
person  as  an  outcast  and  criminal  who  thinks  for 
himself  and  denies  their  authority,  the  world  will 
be  filled  with  hatred  and  suffering.  To  hate  man 
and  worship  God  seems  to  be  the  sum  of  all  the 
creeds. 

That  which  has  happened  in  most  countries  has 
happened  in  ours.  When  a  religion  is  founded,  the 
educated,  the  powerful — that  is  to  say,  the  priests 
and  nobles,  tell  the  ignorant  and  superstitious — that 
is  to  say,  the  people,  that  the  religion  of  their  country 
was  given  to  their  fathers  by  God  himself ;  that  it  is 
the  only  true  religion  ;  that  all  others  were  conceived 
in  falsehood  and  brought  forth  in  fraud,  and  that  all 
who  believe  in  the  true  religion  will  be  happy  for- 
ever, while  all  others  will  burn  in  hell.  For  the 
purpose  of  governing  the  people,  that  is  to  say,  for 
the  purpose  of  being  supported  by  the  people,  the 
priests  and  nobles  declare  this  religion  to  be  sacred, 
and  that  whoever  adds  to,  or  takes  from  it,  will  be 


1 6  SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES. 

burned  here  by  man,  and  hereafter  by  God.  The 
result  of  this  is,  that  the  priests  and  nobles  will  not 
allow  the  people  to  change  ;  and  when,  after  a  time, 
the  priests,  having  intellectually  advanced,  wish  to 
take  a  step  in  the  direction  of  progress,  the  people 
will  not  allow  them  to  change.  At  first,  the  rabble 
are  enslaved  by  the  priests,  and  afterwards  the  rabble 
become  the  masters. 

One  of  the  first  things  I  wish  to  do,  is  to  free  the 
orthodox  clergy.  I  am  a  great  friend  of  theirs,  and 
in  spite  of  all  they  may  say  against  me,  I  am  going 
to  do  them  a  great  and  lasting  service.  Upon  their 
necks  are  visible  the  marks  of  the  collar,  and  upon 
their  backs  those  of  the  lash.  They  are  not  allowed 
to  read  and  think  for  themselves.  They  are  taught 
like  parrots,  and  the  best  are  those  who  repeat,  with 
the  fewest  mistakes,  the  sentences  they  have  been 
taught.  They  sit  like  owls  upon  some  dead  limb  of 
the  tree  of  knowledge,  and  hoot  the  same  old  hoots 
that  have  been  hooted  for  eighteen  hundred  years. 
Their  congregations  are  not  grand  enough,  nor 
sufficiently  civilized,  to  be  willing  that  the  poor 
preachers  shall  think  for  themselves.  They  are  not 
employed  for  that  purpose.  Investigation  is  regarded 
as  a  dangerous  experiment,  and  the   ministers  are 


some!  mistakes  of  moses.  17 

warned  that  none  of  that  kind  of  work  will  be  toler- 
ated. They  are  notified  to  stand  by  the  old  creed, 
-and  to  avoid  all  original  thought,  as  a  mortal 
pestilence.  Every  minister  is  employed  like  an 
attorney — either  for  plaintiff  or  defendant, — and  he  is 
expected  to  be  true  to  his  client.  If  he  changes  his 
mind,  he  is  regarded  as  a  deserter,  and  denounced, 
hated,  and  slandered  accordingly.  Every  orthodox 
clergyman  agrees  not  to  change.  He  contracts  not 
to  find  new  facts,  and  makes  a  bargain  that  he  will 
deny  them  if  he  does.  Such  is  the  position  of  a 
protestant  minister  in  this  Nineteenth  Century.  His 
condition  excites  my  pity  ;  and  to  better  it,  I  am 
going  to  do  what  little  I  can. 

Some  of  the  clergy  have  the  independence  to  break 
away,  and  the  intellect  to  maintain  themselves  as  free 
men,  but  the  most  are  compelled  to  submit  to  the 
dictation  of  the  orthodox,  and  the  dead.  They  are 
not  employed  to  give  their  thoughts,  but  simply  to 
repeat  the  ideas  of  others.  They  are  not  expected 
to  give  even  the  doubts  that  may  suggest  themselves, 
but  are  required  to  walk  in  the  narrow,  verdureless 
path  trodden  by  the  ignorance  of  the  past.  The 
forests  and  fields  on  either  side  are  nothing  to  them. 
They  must  not  even  look  at  the  purple  hills,  nof 
2 


SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES. 


pause  to  hear  the  babble  of  the  brooks.  They  must 
remain  in  the  dusty  road  where  the  guide-boards  are. 
They  must  confine  themselves  to  the  "  fall  of  man," 
the  expulsion  from  the  garden,  the  "  scheme  of 
salvation,"  the  "second  birth,"  the  atonement,  the 
happiness  of  the  redeemed,  and  the  misery  of  the 
lost.  They  must  be  careful  not  to  express  any  new 
ideas  upon  these  great  questions.  It  is  much  safer 
for  them  to  quote  from  the  works  of  the  dead.  The 
more  vividly  they  describe  the  sufferings  of  the 
unregenerate,  of  those  who  attended  theatres  and 
balls,  and  drank  wine  in  summer  gardens  on  the 
sabbath-day,  and  laughed  at  priests,  the  better 
ministers  they  are  supposed  to  be.  They  must  show 
that  misery  fits  the  good  for  heaven,  while  happiness 
prepares  the  bad  for  hell ;  that  the  wicked  get  all 
their  good  things  in  this  life,  and  the  good  all  their 
evil ;  that  in  this  world  God  punishes  the  people  he 
loves,  and  in  the  next,  the  ones  he  hates  ;  that  happi- 
ness makes  us  bad  here,  but  not  in  heaven  ;  that  pain 
makes  us  good  here,  but  not  in  hell.  No  matter 
how  absurd  these  things  may  appear  to  the  carnal 
mind,  they  must  be  preached  and  they  must  be 
believed.  If  they  were  reasonable,  there  would  be 
no  virtue  in  believing.     Even  the  publicans  and  sin- 


SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES.  1 9 

ners  believe  reasonable  things.  To  believe  without 
evidence,  or  in  spite  of  it,  is  accounted  as  righteous- 
ness to  the  sincere  and  humble  christian. 

The  ministers  are  in  duty  bound  to  denounce  all 
intellectual  pride,  and  show  that  we  are  never  quite 
'so  dear  to  God  as  when  we  admit  that  we  are  poor, 
corrupt  and  idiotic  worms  ;  that  we  never  should 
have  been  born  ;  that  we  ought  to  be  damned  with- 
out the  least  delay  ;  that  we  are  so  infamous  that  we 
like  to  enjoy  ourselves  ;  that  we  love  our  wives  and 
children  better  than  our  God  ;  that  we  are  generous 
only  because  we  are  vile  ;  that  we  are  honest  from 
the  meanest  motives,  and  that  sometimes  we  have 
fallen  so  low  that  we  have  had  doubts  about  the  in- 
spiration of  the  Jewish  scriptures.  In  short,  they  are 
expected  to  denounce  all  pleasant  paths  and  rustling 
trees,  to  curse  the  grass  and  flowers,  and  glorify  the 
dust  and  weeds.  They  are  expected  to  malign  the 
wicked  people  in  the  green  and  happy  fields,  who  sit 
and  laugh  beside  the  gurgling  springs  or  climb  the 
hills  and  wander  as  they  will.  They  are  expected 
to  point  out  the  dangers  of  freedom,  the  safety  of 
implicit  obedience,  and  to  show  the  wickedness  of 
philosophy,  the  goodness  of  faith,  the  immorality  of 
science  and  the  purity  of  ignorance, 


20  SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES. 

Now  and  then,  a  few  pious  people  discover  some 
young  man  of  a  religious  turn  of  mind  and  a  con- 
sumptive habit  of  body,  not  quite  sickly  enough  to 
die,  nor  healthy  enough  to  be  wicked.  The  idea 
occurs  to  them  that  he  would  make  a  good  orthodox 
minister.  They  take  up  a  contribution,  and  send  the 
young  man  to  some  theological  school  where  he 
can  be  taught  to  repeat  a  creed  and  despise  reason. 
Should  it  turn  out  that  the  young  man  had  some 
mind  of  his  own,  and,  after  graduating,  should 
change  his  opinions  and  preach  a  different  doctrine 
from  that  taught  in  the  school,  every  man  who  con- 
tributed a  dollar  towards  his  education  would  feel 
that  he  had  been  robbed,  and  would  denounce  him 
as  a  dishonest  and  ungrateful  wretch. 

The  pulpit  should  not  be  a  pillory.  Congrega- 
tions should  allow  the  minister  a  little  liberty.  They 
should,  at  least,  permit  him  to  tell  the  truth. 

They  have,  in  Massachusetts,  at  a  place  called 
Andover,  a  kind  of  minister  factory,  where  each 
professor  takes  an  oath  once  in  five  years — that  time 
being  considered  the  life  of  an  oath— that  he  has  not, 
during  the  last  five  years,  and  will  not,  durine  the 
next  five  years,  intellectually  advance.  There  is 
probably  no  oath  that  they  could  easier  keep.   Prob- 


SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES.  2  1 

ably,  since  the  foundation  stone  of  that  institution 
was  laid  there  has  not  been  a  single  case  of  perjury. 
The  old  creed  is  still  taught.  They  still  insist  that 
God  is  infinitely  wise,  powerful  and  good,  and  that 
all  men  are  totally  depraved.  They  insist  that  the 
best  man  God  ever  made,  deserved  to  be  damned 
the  moment  he  was  finished.  Andover  puts  its  brand 
upon  every  minister  it  turns  out,  the  same  as  Shef- 
field and  Birmingham  brand  their  wares,  and  all  who 
see  the  brand  know  exactly  what  the  minister  be- 
lieves, the  books  he  has  read,  the  arguments  he 
relies  on,  and  just  what  he  intellectually  is.  They 
know  just  what  he  can  be  depended  on  to  preach, 
and  that  he  will  continue  to  shrink  and  shrivel,  and 
grow  solemnly  stupid  day  by  day  until  he  reaches 
the  Andover  of  the  grave  and  becomes  truly  ortho- 
dox forever. 

I  have  not  singled  out  the  Andover  factory 
because  it  is  worse  than  the  others.  They  are  all 
about  the  same.  The  professors,  for  the  most  part, 
are  ministers  who  failed  in  the  pulpit  and  were  retired 
to  the  seminary  on  account  of  their  deficiency  in 
reason  and  their  excess  of  faith.  As  a  rule,  they 
know  nothing-  of  this  world,  and  far  less  of  the  next  ; 
but  they  have  the  power  of  stating  the  most  absurd 


2  2  SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES. 

propositions  with  faces  solemn  as  stupidity  touched 
by  fear. 

Something  should  be  done  for  the  liberation  of 
these  men.  They  should  be  allowed  to  grow — to 
have  sunlight  and  air.  They  should  no  longer  be 
chained  and  tied  to  confessions  of  faith,  to  mouldy 
books  and  musty  creeds.  Thousands  of  ministers 
are  anxious  to  give  their  honest  thoughts.  The 
hands  of  wives  and  babes  now  stop  their  mouths. 
They  must  have  bread,  and  so  the  husbands  and 
fathers  are  forced  to  preach  a  doctrine  that  they  hold 
in  scorn.  For  the  sake  of  shelter,  food  and  clothes, 
they  are  obliged  to  defend  the  childish  miracles  of  the 
past,  and  denounce  the  sublime  discoveries  of  to-day. 
They  are  compelled  to  attack  all  modern  thought,  to 
point  out  the  dangers  of  science,  the  wickedness  of 
investigation  and  the  corrupting  influence  of  logic. 
It  is  for  them  to  show  that  virtue  rests  upon 
ignorance  and  faith,  while  vice  impudently  feeds  and 
fattens  upon  fact  and  demonstration.  It  is  a  part  of 
their  business  to  malign  and  vilify  the  Voltaires, 
Humes,  Paines,  Humboldts,  Tyndals,  Haeckels, 
Darwins,  Spencers,  and  Drapers,  and  to  bow  with 
uncovered  heads  before  the  murderers,  adulterers, 
and   persecutors  of  the  world.      They  are,  for  the 


SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES.  23 

most  part,  engaged  in  poisoning  the  minds  of  the 
young,  prejudicing  children  against  science,  teaching 
the  astronomy  and  geology  of  the  bible,  and  inducing 
all  to  desert  the  sublime  standard  of  reason. 

These  orthodox  ministers  do  not  add  to  the  sum 
of  knowledge.  They  produce  nothing.  They  live 
upon  alms.  They  hate  laughter  and  joy.  They 
officiate  at  weddings,  sprinkle  water  upon  babes,  and 
utter  meaningless  words  and  barren  promises  above 
the  dead.  They  laugh  at  the  agony  of  unbelievers, 
mock  at  their  tears,  and  of  their  sorrows  make  a  jest. 
There  are  some  noble  exceptions.  Now  and  then  a 
pulpit  holds  a  brave  and  honest  man.  Their  congre- 
gations are  willing  that  they  should  think — willing 
that  their  ministers  should  have  a  little  freedom. 

As  we  become  civilized,  more  and  more  liberty 
will  be  accorded  to  these  men,  until  finally  ministers 
will  give  their  best  and  highest  thoughts.  The 
congregations  will  finally  get  tired  of  hearing  about 
the  patriarchs  and  saints,  the  miracles  and  wonders, 
and  will  insist  upon  knowing  something  about  the 
men  and  women  of  our  day,  and  the  accomplishments 
and  discoveries  of  our  time.  They  will  finally  insist 
upon  knowing  how  to  escape  the  evils  of  this  world 
instead  of  the  next.     They  will  ask  light  upon  the 


1\  SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES. 

enigmas  of  this  life.  They  will  wish  to  know  what 
we  shall  do  with  our  criminals  instead  of  what  God 
will  do  with  his — how  we  shall  do  away  with  beggary 
and  want — with  crime  and  misery — with  prostitution, 
disease  and  famine, — with  tyranny  in  all  its  cruel 
forms — with  prisons  and  scaffolds,  and  how  we  shall 
reward  the  honest  workers,  and  fill  the  world  with 
happy  homes !  These  are  the  problems  for  the 
pulpits  and  congregations  of  an  enlightened  future. 
If  Science  cannot  finally  answer  these  questions,  it  is 
a  vain  and  worthless  thing. 

The  clergy,  however,  will  continue  to  answer 
them  in  the  old  way,  until  their  congregations  are 
good  enough  to  set  them  free.  They  will  still  talk 
about  believing  in  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  as  though 
that  were  the  only  remedy  for  all  human  ills.  They 
will  still  teach  that  retrogression  is  the  only  path 
that  leads  to  light ;  that  we  must  go  back,  that  faith 
is  the  only  sure  guide,  and  that  reason  is  a  delusive 
glare,  lighting  only  the  road  to  eternal  pain. 

Until  the  clergy  are  free  they  cannot  be  intel- 
lectually honest.  We  can  never  tell  what  they  really 
believe  until  they  know  that  they  can  safely  speak. 
They  console  themselves  now  by  a  secret  resolution 
to  be  as  liberal  as  they  dare,  with  the  hope  that  they 


SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES.  2  5 

can  finally  educate  their  congregations  to  the  point 
of  allowing  them  to  think  a  little  for  themselves. 
They  hardly  know  what  they  ought  to  do.  The 
best  part  of  their  lives  has  been  wasted  in  studying 
subjects  of  no  possible  value.  Most  of  them  are 
married,  have  families,  and  know  but  one  way  of 
making  their  living.  Some  of  them  say  that  if  they 
do  not  preach  these  foolish  dogmas,  others  will,  and 
that  they  may  through  fear,  after  all,  restrain  mankind. 
Besides,  they  hate  publicly  to  admit  that  they  are 
mistaken,  that  the  whole  thing  is  a  delusion,  that  the 
"scheme  of  salvation"  is  absurd,  and  that  the  bible 
is  no  better  than  some  other  books,  and  worse  than 
most. 

You  can  hardly  expect  a  bishop  to  leave  his 
palace,  or  the  pope  to  vacate  the  Vatican.  As  long 
as  people  want  popes,  plenty  of  hypocrites  will  be 
found  to  take  the  place.  And  as  long  as  labor 
fatigues,  there  will  be  found  a  good  many  men  will- 
ing to  preach  once  a  week,  if  other  folks  will  work 
and  give  them  bread.  In  other  words,  while  the 
demand  lasts,  the  supply  will  never  fail. 

If  the  people  were  a  little  more  ignorant,  as- 
trology would  flourish — if  a  little  more  enlightened, 
religion  would  perish! 


II. 

FREE    SCHOOLS. 

It  is  also  my  desire  to  free  the  schools.  When  a 
professor  in  a  college  finds  a  fact,  he  should  make 
it  known,  even  if  it  is  inconsistent  with  something 
Moses  said.  Public  opinion  must  not  compel  the 
professor  to  hide  a-fact,  and,  "like  the  base  Indian, 
throw  the  pearl  away."  With  the  single  exception 
of  Cornell,  there  is  not  a  college  in  the  United  States 
where  truth  has  ever  been  a  welcome  guest.  The 
moment  one  of  the  teachers  denies  the  inspiration  of 
the  bible,  he  is  discharged.  If  he  discovers  a  fact 
inconsistent  with  that  book,  so  much  the  worse  for 
the  fact,  and  especially  for  the  discoverer  of  the  fact. 
He  must  not  corrupt  the  minds  of  his  pupils  with 
demonstrations.  He  must  beware  of  every  truth 
that  cannot,  in  some  way  be  made  to  harmonize  with 
the  superstitions  of  the  Jews.  Science  has  nothing 
in  common  with  religion.     Facts  and  miracles  never 


SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES.  2*] 

did,  and  never  will  agree.  They  are  not  in  the  least 
related.  They  are  deadly  foes.  What  has  religion 
to  do  with  facts?  Nothing.  Can  there  be  Methodist 
mathematics,  Catholic  astronomy,  Presbyterian  geol- 
ogy, Baptist  biology,  or  Episcopal  botany?  Why, 
then,  should  a  sectarian  college  exist?  Only  that 
which  somebody  knows  should  be  taught  in  our 
schools.  We  should  not  collect  taxes  to  pay  people 
for  Q-uessino-.  The  common  school  is  the  bread  of 
life  for  the  people,  and  it  should  not  be  touched  by 
the  withering  hand  of  superstition. 

Our  country  will  never  be  filled  with  great  insti- 
tutions of  learning  until  there  is  an  absolute  divorce 
between  Church  and  School.  As  long  as  the 
mutilated  records  of  a  barbarous  people  are  placed  by 
priest  and  professor  above  the  reason  of  mankind,  we 
shall  reap  but  little  benefit  from  church  or  school. 

Instead  of  dismissing  professors  for  finding  some- 
thing out,  let  us  rather  discharge  those  who  do  not. 
Let  each  teacher  understand  that  investigation  is  not 
dangerous  for  him ;  that  his  bread  is  safe,  no  matter 
how  much  truth  he  may  discover,  and  that  his  salary 
will  not  be  reduced,  simply  because  he  finds  that  the 
ancient  Jews  did  not  know  the  entire  history  of  the 
world. 


28  SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES. 

Besides,  it  is  not  fair  to  make  the  Catholic  sup- 
port a  Protestant  school,  nor  is  it  just  to  collect  taxes 
from  infidels  and  atheists  to  support  schools  in  which 
any  system  of  religion  is  taught. 

The  sciences  are  not  sectarian.  People  do  not 
persecute  each  other  on  account  of  disagreements  in 
mathematics.  Families  are  not  divided  about  botany, 
and  astronomy  does  not  even  tend  to  make  a  man 
hate  his  father  and  mother.  It  is  what  people  do  not 
know,  that  they  persecute  each  other  about.  Science 
will  bring,  not  a  sword,  but  peace. 

Just  as  long  as  religion  has  control  of  the  schools, 
science  will  be  an  outcast.  Let  us  free  our  institu- 
tions of  learning.  Let  us  dedicate  them  to  the 
science  of  eternal  truth.  Let  us  tell  every  teacher 
to  ascertain  all  the  facts  he  can — to  give  us  light,  to 
follow  Nature,  no  matter  where  she  leads;  to  be 
infinitely  true  to  himself  and  us ;  to  feel  that  he  is 
without  a  chain,  except  the  obligation  to  be  honest; 
that  he  is  bound  by  no  books,  by  no  creed,  neither 
by  the  sayings  of  the  dead  nor  of  the  living ; 
that  he  is  asked  to  look  with  his  own  eyes,  to 
reason  for  himself  without  fear,  to  investigate  in 
every  possible  direction,  and  to  bring  us  the  fruit  oi 
all  his  work. 


SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES.  20. 

At  present,  a  good  many  men  engaged  in  scien- 
tific pursuits,  and  who  have  signally  failed  in  gaining 
recognition  among  their  fellows,  are  endeavoring  to 
make  reputations  among  the  churches  by  delivering 
weak  and  vapid  lectures  upon  the  "harmony  of 
Genesis  and  Geology."  Like  all  hypocrites,  these 
men  overstate  the  case  to  such  a  degree,  and  so  turn 
and  pervert  facts  and  words  that  they  succeed  only 
in  gaining  the  applause  of  other  hypocrites  like  them- 
selves. Among  the  great  scientists  they  are  regarded 
as  orenerals  regard  sutlers  who  trade  with  both  armies. 

Surely  the  time  must  come  when  the  wealth  of  the 
world  will  not  be  wasted  in  the  propagation  of  ignor- 
ant creeds  and  miraculous  mistakes.  The  time  must 
come  when  churches  and  cathedrals  will  be  dedicated 
to  the  use  of  man ;  when  minister  and  priest  will  deem 
the  discoveries  of  the  living  of  more  importance  than 
the  errors  of  the  dead ;  when  the  truths  of  Nature 
will  outrank  the  "sacred"  falsehoods  of  the  past,  and 
when  a  single  fact  will  outweigh  all  the  miracles  of 
Holy  Writ. 

Who  can  over  estimate  the  progress  of  the 
world  if  all  the  money  wasted  in  superstition 
could  be  used  to  enlighten,  elevate  and  civil- 
ize   mankind  ? 


30  SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES. 

When  every  church  becomes  a  school,  every 
cathedral  a  university,  every  clergyman  a  teacher, 
and  all  their  hearers  brave  and  honest  thinkers,  then, 
and  not  until  then,  will  the  dream  of  poet,  patriot, 
philanthropist  and  philosopher,  become  a  real  and 
blessed  truth. 


III. 

THE  POLITICIANS. 

I  would  like  also  to  liberate  the  politician.  At 
present,  the  successful  office-seeker  is  a  good 
deal  like  the  centre  of  the  earth  ;  he  weighs  nothing 
himself,  but  draws  everything  else  to  him.  There  are 
so  many  societies,  so  many  churches,  so  many  isms, 
that  it  is  almost  impossible  for  an  independent  man 
to  succeed  in  a  political  career.  Candidates  are 
forced  to  pretend  that  they  are  catholics  with  protest- 
ant  proclivities,  or  christians  with  liberal  tendencies, 
or  temperance  men  who  now  and  then  take  a  glass 
of  wine,  or,  that  although  not  members  of  any  church 
their  wives  are,  and  that  they  subscribe  liberally  to 
all.  The  result  of  all  this  is  that  we  reward  hypocrisy 
and  elect  men  entirely  destitute  of  real  principle ; 
and  this  will  never  change  until  the  people  become 
grand  enough  to  allow  each  other  to  do  their  own 
thinking. 


32  SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES. 

Our  government  should  be  entirely  and  purely 
secular.  The  religious  views  of  a  candidate  should 
be  kept  entirely  out  of  sight.  He  should  not  be 
compelled  to  give  his  opinion  as  to  the  inspiration 
of  the  bible,  the  propriety  of  infant  baptism,  or  the 
immaculate  conception.  All  these  things  are  private 
and  personal.  He  should  be  allowed  to  settle  such 
things  for  himself,  and  should  he  decide  contrary  to 
the  law  and  will  of  God,  let  him  settle  the  matter 
with  God.  The  people  ought  to  be  wise  enough 
to  select  as  their  officers  men  who  know  something 
of  political  affairs,  who  comprehend  the  present 
greatness,  and  clearly  perceive  the  future  grandeur 
of  our  country.  If  we  were  in  a  storm  at  sea,  with 
deck  wave-washed  and  masts  strained  and  bent  with 
storm,  and  it  was  necessary  to  reef  the  top  sail,  we 
certainly  would  not  ask  the  brave  sailor  who  volun- 
teered to  go  aloft,  what  his  opinion  was  on  the  five 
points  of  Calvinism.  Our  government  has  nothing 
to  do  with  religion.  It  is  neither  christian  nor  pagan  ; 
it  is  secular.  But  as  long  as  the  people  persist  in 
voting  for  or  against  men  on  account  of  their  relig- 
ious views,  just  so  long  will  hypocrisy  hold  place  and 
power.  Just  so  long  will  the  candidates  crawl  in  the 
dust — hide  their  opinions,  flatter  those  with  whom 


SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES.  33 

they  differ,  pretend  to  agree  with  those  whom  they 
despise ;  and  just  so  long  will  honest  men  be  trampled 
under  foot.  Churches  are  becoming  political  organ- 
izations. Nearly  every  Catholic  is  a  democrat; 
nearly  every  Methodist  in  the  North  is  a  re- 
publican. 

It  probably  will  not  be  long  until  the  churches 
will  divide  as  sharply  upon  political,  as  upon  the- 
ological questions ;  and  when  that  day  comes,  if 
there  are  not  liberals  enough  to  hold  the  balance  of 
power,  this  government  will  be  destroyed.  The 
liberty  of  man  is  not  safe  in  the  hands  of  any  church. 
Wherever  the  bible  and  sword  are  in  partnership, 
man  is  a  slave. 

All  laws  for  the  purpose  of  making  man  worship 
God,  are  born  of  the  same  spirit  that  kindled  the 
fires  of  the  auto  da  fe,  and  lovingly  built  the  dun- 
geons of  the  Inquisition.  All  laws  defining  and 
punishing  blasphemy — making  it  a  crime  to  give 
your  honest  ideas  about  the  bible,  or  to  laugh  at  the 
ignorance  of  the  ancient  Jews,  or  to  enjoy  yourself 
on  the  Sabbath,  or  to  give  your  opinion  of  Jehovah, 
were  passed  by  impudent  bigots,  and  should  be  at 
once  repealed  by  honest  men.  An  infinite  God 
ought  to  be  able  to  protect  himself,  without  going  in 
3 


34  SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES. 

partnership  with  state  legislatures.  Certainly  he 
ought  not  so  to  act  that  laws  become  necessary  to 
keep  him  from  being  laughed  at.  No  one  thinks 
of  protecting  Shakespeare  from  ridicule,  by  the 
threat  of  fine  and  imprisonment.  It  strikes  me  that 
God  might  write  a  book  that  would  not  necessarily 
excite  the  laughter  of  his  children.  In  fact,  I  think 
it  would  be  safe  to  say  that  a  real  God  could  produce 
a  work  that  would  excite  the  admiration  of  mankind. 
Surely  politicians  could  be  better  employed  than  in 
passing  laws  to  protect  the  literary  reputation  of  the 
Jewish  God. 


IV. 

MAN    AND    WOMAN. 

Let  us  forget  that  we  are  Baptists,  Methodists, 
_y  Catholics,  Presbyterians,  or  Free-thinkers,  and 
remember  only  that  we  are  men  and  women.  After 
all,  man  and  woman  are  the  highest  possible  titles. 
All  other  names  belittle  us,  and  show  that  we  have, 
to  a  certain  extent,  given  up  our  individuality,  and 
have  consented  to  wear  the  collar  of  authority — that 
we  are  followers.  Throwing  away  these  names, 
let  us  examine  these  questions  not  as  partisans, 
but  as  human  beings  with  hopes  and  fears  in 
common. 

We  know  that  our  opinions  depend,  to  a  great 
degree,  upon  our  surroundings — upon  race,  country, 
and  education.  We  are  all  the  result  of  numberless 
conditions,  and  inherit  vices  and  virtues,  truths  and 
prejudices.  If  we  had  been  born  in  England,  sur- 
rounded by  wealth  and  clothed  with  power,  most  of 


36  SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES. 

us  would  have  been  Episcopalians,  and  believed  in 
Church  and  State.  We  should  have  insisted  that  the 
people  needed  a  religion,  and  that  not  having 
intellect  enough  to  provide  one  for  themselves,  it 
was  our  duty  to  make  one  for  them,  and  then  com- 
pel them  to  support  it.  We  should  have  believed  it 
indecent  to  officiate  in  a  pulpit  without  wearing  a 
gown,  and  that  prayers  should  be  read  from  a  book. 
Had  we  belonged  to  the  lower  classes,  we  might  have 
been  dissenters  and  protested  against  the  mummeries 
of  the  High  Church.  Had  we  been  born  in  Turkey, 
most  of  us  would  have  been  Mohammedans  and 
believed  in  the  inspiration  of  the  Koran.  We  should 
have  believed  that  Mohammed  actually  visited 
Heaven  and  became  acquainted  with  an  angel  by  the 
name  of  Gabriel,  who  was  so  broad  between  the  eyes 
that  it  required  three  hundred  days  for  a  very 
smart  camel  to  travel  the  distance.  If  some  man 
had  denied  this  story  we  should  probably  have 
denounced  him  as  a  dangerous  person,  one  who  was 
endeavoring  to  undermine  the  foundations  of  society, 
and  to  destroy  all  distinction  between  virtue  and  vice. 
We  should  have  said  to  him,  "What  do  you  propose 
to  give  us  in  place  of  that  angel?  We  cannot  afford 
to  give  up  an  angel  of  that  size  for  nothing."     We 


SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES.  37 

would  have  insisted  that  the  best  and  wisest  men 
believed  the  Koran.  We  would  have  quoted  from 
the  works  and  letters  of  philosophers,  generals  and 
sultans,  to  show  that  the  Koran  was  the  best  of 
books,  and  that  Turkey  was  indebted  to  that  book 
and  to  that  alone  for  its  greatness  and  prosperity. 
We  would  have  asked  that  man  whether  he  knew 
more  than  all  the  great  minds  of  his  country,  whether 
he  was  so  much  wiser  than  his  fathers?  We  would  have 
pointed  out  to  him  the  fact  that  thousands  had  been 
consoled  in  the  hour  of  death  by  passages  from  the 
Koran ;  that  they  had  died  with  glazed  eyes  bright- 
ened by  visions  of  the  heavenly  harem,  and  gladly 
left  this  world  of  grief  and  tears.  We  would  have 
regarded  Christians  as  the  vilest  of  men,  and  on  all 
occasions  would  have  repeated  "There  is  but  one 
God,  and  Mohammed  is  his  prophet!" 

So,  if  we  had  been  born  in  India,  we  should  in 
all  probability  have  believed  in  the  religion  of  that 
country.  We  should  have  regarded  the  old  records 
as  true  and  sacred,  and  looked  upon  a  wandering 
priest  as  better  than  the  men  from  whom  he  begged, 
and  by  whose  labor  he  lived.  We  should  have 
believed  in  a  god  with  three  heads  instead  of  three 
gods  with  one  head,  as  we  do  now. 


3 8  SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES. 

Now  and  then  some  one  says  that  the  religion  of 
his  father  and  mother  is  good  enough  for  him,  and 
wonders  why  anybody  should  desire  a  better.  Surely 
we  are  not  bound  to  follow  our  parents  in  religion 
any  more  than  in  politics,  science  or  art.  China  has 
been  petrified  by  the  worship  of  ancestors.  If  our 
parents  had  been  satisfied  with  the  religion  of  theirs, 
we  would  be  still  less  advanced  than  we  are.  If  we 
are,  in  any  way,  bound  by  the  belief  of  our  fathers, 
the  doctrine  will  hold  good  back  to  the  first  people 
who  had  a  religion ;  and  if  this  doctrine  is  true,  we 
ought  now  to  be  believers  in  that  first  religion.  In 
other  words,  we  would  all  be  barbarians.  You  can- 
not show  real  respect  to  your  parents  by  perpetuating 
their  errors.  Good  fathers  and  mothers  wish  their 
children  to  advance,  to  overcome  obstacles  which 
baffled  them,  and  to  correct  the  errors  of  their  educa- 
tion. If  you  wish  to  reflect  credit  upon  your  parents, 
accomplish  more  than  they  did,  solve  problems  that 
they  could  not  understand,  and  build  better  than  they 
knew.  To  sacrifice  your  manhood  upon  the  grave 
of  your  father  is  an  honor  to  neither.  Why  should 
a  son  who  has  examined  a  subject,  throw  away  his 
reason  and  adopt  the  views  of  his  mother?  Is  not 
such  a  course  dishonorable  to  both? 


SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES.  39 

We  must  remember  that  this  "ancestor"  anni- 
merit  is  as  old  at  least  as  the  second  generation  of 
men,  that  it  has  served  no  purpose  except  to  enslave 
mankind,  and  results  mostly  from  the  fact  that 
acquiescence  is  easier  than  investigation.  This 
argument  pushed  to  its  logical  conclusion,  would 
prevent  the  advance  of  all  people  whose  parents 
were  not  free-thinkers. 

It  is  hard  for  many  people  to  give  up  the  religion 
in  which  they  were  born ;  to  admit  that  their  fathers 
were  utterly  mistaken,  and  that  the  sacred  records  of 
their  country  are  but  collections  of  myths  and 
fables. 

But  when  we  look  for  a  moment  at  the  world,  we 
find  that  each  nation  has  its  "sacred  records" — its 
religion,  and  its  ideas  of  worship.  Certainly  all  can- 
not be  right ;  and  as  it  would  require  a  life  time  to 
investigate  the  claims  of  these  various  systems,  it  is 
hardly  fair  to  damn  a  man  forever,  simply  because  he 
happens  to  believe  the  wrong  one.  All  these 
religions  were  produced  by  barbarians.  Civilized 
nations  have  contented  themselves  with  changing 
the  religions  of  their  barbaric  ancestors,  but  they 
have  made  none.  Nearly  all  these  religions  are 
intensely  selfish.     Each  one  was  made  by  some  con- 


40  SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES. 

temptible  little  nation  that  regarded  itself  as  of  almost 
infinite  importance,  and  looked  upon  the  other  nations 
as  beneath  the  notice  of  their  god.  In  all  these 
countries  it  was  a  crime  to  deny  the  sacred  records, 
to  laugh  at  the  priests,  to  speak  disrespectfully  of  the 
gods,  to  fail  to  divide  your  substance  with  the  lazy 
hypocrites  who  managed  your  affairs  in  the  next 
world  upon  condition  that  you  would  support  them 
in  this.  In  the  olden  time  these  theological  people 
who  quartered  themselves  upon  the  honest  and 
industrious,  were  called  soothsayers,  seers,  charmers, 
prophets,  enchanters,  sorcerers,  wizards,  astrologers, 
and  impostors,  but  now,  they  are  known  as  cler- 
gymen. 

We  are  no  exception  to  the  general  rule,  and 
consequently  have  our  sacred  books  as  well  as 
the  rest.  Of  course,  it  is  claimed  by  many  of  our 
people  that  our  books  are  the  only  true  ones,  the 
only  ones  that  the  real  God  ever  wrote,  or  had  any- 
thing whatever  to  do  with.  They  insist  that  all 
other  sacred  books  were  written  by  hypocrites  and 
impostors ;  that  the  Jews  were  the  only  people  that 
God  ever  had  any  personal  intercourse  with,  and  that 
all  other  prophets  and  seers  were  inspired  only  by  im- 
pudence and  mendacity.      True,  it  seems  somewhat 


SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES.  4 1 

strange  that  God  should  have  chosen  a  barbarous 
and  unknown  people  who  had  little  or  nothing  to  do 
with  the  other  nations  of  the  earth,  as  his  messengers 
to  the  rest  of  mankind. 

It  is  not  easy  to  account  for  an  infinite  God 
making  people  so  low  in  the  scale  of  intellect  as 
to  require  a  revelation.  Neither  is  it  easy  to  per- 
ceive why,  if  a  revelation  was  necessary  for  all, 
it  was  made  only  to  a  few.  Of  course,  I  know  that  it 
is  extremely  wicked  to  suggest  these  thoughts,  and 
that  ignorance  is  the  only  armor  that  can  effectually 
protect  you  from  the  wrath  of  God.  I  am  aware 
that  investigators  with  all  their  genius,  never  find 
the  road  to  heaven  ;  that  those  who  look  where 
they  are  going  are  sure  to  miss  it,  and  that  only 
those  who  voluntarily  put  out  their  eyes  and 
implicitly  depend  upon  blindness  can  surely  keep  the 
narrow  path. 

Whoever  reads  our  sacred  book  is  compelled  to 
believe  it  or  suffer  forever  the  torments  of  the  lost. 
We  are  told  that  we  have  the  privilege  of  examining 
it  for  ourselves  ;  but  this  privilege  is  only  extended 
to  us  on  the  condition  that  we  believe  it  whether  it 
appears  reasonable  or  not,  We  may  disagree  with 
others  as  much  as  we  please  upon  the  meaning  of 


42  SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES. 

all  passages  in  the  bible,  but  we  must  not  deny 
the  truth  of  a  single  word.  We  must  believe 
that  the  book  is  inspired.  If  we  obey  its  every  pre- 
cept without  believing  in  its  inspiration  we  will  be 
damned  just  as  certainly  as  though  we  disobeyed  its 
every  word.  We  have  no  right  to  weigh  it  in  the 
scales  of  reason — to  test  it  by  the  laws  of  nature, 
or  the  facts  of  observation  and  experience.  To 
do  this,  we  are  told,  is  to  put  ourselves  above  the 
word  of  God,  and  sit  in  judgment  on  the  works 
of  our  creator. 

For  my  part,  I  cannot  admit  that  belief  is  a  volun- 
tary thing.  It  seems  to  me  that  evidence,  even  in 
spite  of  ourselves,  will%  have  its  weight,  and  that 
whatever  our  wish  may  be,  we  are  compelled  to  stand 
with  fairness  by  the  scales,  and  give  the  exact  result. 
It  will  not  do  to  say  that  we  reject  the  bible  because 
we  are  wicked.  Our  wickedness  must  be  ascertained 
not  from  our  belief  but  from  our  acts. 

I  am  told  by  the  clergy  that  I  ought  not  to  attack 
the  bible ;  that  I  am  leading  thousands  to  perdition 
and  rendering  certain  the  damnation  of  my  own  soul. 
They  have  had  the  kindness  to  advise  me  that,  if  my 
object  is  to  make  converts,  I  am  pursuing  the  wrong 
course.     They  tell    me  to  use  gentler  expressions, 


SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES.  43 

and  more  cunning  words.  Do  they  really  wish 
me  to  make  more  converts  ?  If  their  advice  is 
honest,  they  are  traitors  to  their  trust.  If  their  advice 
is  not  honest,  then  they  are  unfair  with  me. 
Certainly  they  should  wish  me  to  pursue  the  course 
that  will  make  the  fewest  converts,  and  yet  they  pre- 
tend to  tell  me  how  my  influence  could  be  increased. 
It  may  be,  that  upon  this  principle  John  Bright 
advises  America  to  adopt  free  trade,  so  that  our 
country  can  become  a  successful  rival  of  Great  Britain. 
Sometimes  I  think  that  even  ministers  are  not  en- 
tirely candid. 

Notwithstanding  the  advice  of  the  clergy,  I  have 
concluded  to  pursue  my  own  course,  to  tell  my  honest 
thoughts,  and  to  have  my  freedom  in  this  world 
whatever  my  fate  may  be  in  the  next. 

The  real  oppressor,  enslaver  and  corrupter  of  the 
people  is  the  bible.  That  book  is  the  chain  that 
binds,  the  dungeon  that  holds  the  clergy.  That  book 
spreads  the  pall  of  superstition  over  the  colleges  and 
schools.  That  book  puts  out  the  eyes  of  science,  and 
-makes  honest  investigation  a  crime.  That  book 
unmans  the  politician  and  degrades  the  people. 
That  book  fills  the  world  with  bigotry,  hypocrisy 
and  fear.     It  plays   the  same   part   in   our  country 


44  SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES. 

that   has  been    played   by   "  sacred  records "  in  all 
the  nations  of  the  world. 

A  little  while  ago  I  saw  one  of  the  bibles  of  the 
Middle  Ages.  It  was  about  two  feet  in  length,  and 
one  and  a  half  in  width.  It  had  immense  oaken 
covers,  with  hasps,  and  clasps,  and  hinges  large 
enough  almost  for  the  doors  of  a  penitentiary.  It 
was  covered  with  pictures  of  winged  angels  and 
aureoled  saints.  In  my  imagination  I  saw  this  book 
carried  to  the  cathedral  altar  in  solemn  pomp — heard 
the  chant  of  robed  and  kneeling  priests,  felt  the 
strange  tremor  of  the  organ's  peal ;  saw  the  colored 
light  streaming  through  windows  stained  and  touched 
by  blood  and  flame — the  swinging  censer  with  its 
perfumed  incense  rising  to  the  mighty  roof,  dim  with 
height  and  rich  with  legend  carved  in  stone,  while  on 
the  walls  was  hung,  written  in  light,  and  shade,  and 
all  the  colors  that  can  tell  of  joy  and  tears,  the  pictured 
history  of  the  martyred  Christ.  The  people  fell  upon 
their  knees.  The  book  was  opened,  and  the  priest 
read  the  messages  from  God  to  man.  To  the  multi- 
tude, the  book  itself  was  evidence  enough  that  it  was 
not  the  work  of  human  hands.  How  could  those 
little  marks  and  lines  and  dots  contain,  like  tombs,  the 
thoughts  of  men,  and  how  could  they,  touched  by  a 


SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES.  45 

ray  of  light  from  human  eyes,  give  up  their  dead  ? 
How  could  these  characters  span  the  vast  chasm 
dividing  the  present  from  the  past,  and  make  it 
possible  for  the  living  still  to  hear  the  voices  of  the 
dead  ? 


V. 

THE  PENTATEUCH. 

The  first  five  books  in  our  bible  are  known  as  the 
Pentateuch.  For  a  long  time  it  was  supposed 
that  Moses  was  the  author,  and  among  the  ignorant 
the  supposition  still  prevails.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  it 
seems  to  be  well  settled  that  Moses  had  nothing  to 
do  with  these  books,  and  that  they  were  not  written 
until  he  had  been  dust  and  ashes  for  hundreds  of 
years.  But,  as  all  the  churches  still  insist  that  he  was 
the  author,  that  he  wrote  even  an  account  of  his  own 
death  and  burial,  let  us  speak  of  him  as  though  these 
books  were  in  fact  written  by  him.  As  the  christians 
maintain  that  God  was  the  real  author,  it  makes  but 
little  difference  whom  he  employed  as  his  pen,  or 
clerk. 

Nearly  all  authors  of  sacred  books  have  given  an 
account  of  the  creation  of  the  universe,  the  origin  of 
matter,  and  the  destiny  of  the  human  race.     Nearly 


SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES.  47 

all  have  pointed  out  the  obligation  that  man  is  under 
to  his  creator  for  having  placed  him  upon  the  earth, 
and  allowed  him  to  live  and  suffer,  and  have  taught 
that  nothing  short  of  the  most  abject  worship  could 
possibly  compensate  God  for  his  trouble  and  labor 
suffered  and  done  for  the  good  of  man.  They  have 
nearly  all  insisted  that  we  should  thank  God  for  all 
that  is  good  in  life ;  but  they  have  not  all  informed 
us  as  to  whom  we  should  hold  responsible  for  the 
evils  we  endure. 

Moses  differed  from  most  of  the  makers  of  sacred 
books  by  his  failure  to  say  anything  of  a  future  life, 
by  failing  to  promise  heaven,  and  to  threaten  hell. 
Upon  the  subject  of  a  future  state,  there  is  not  one 
word  in  the  Pentateuch.  Probably  at  that  early  day 
God  did  not  deem  it  important  to  make  a  revelation 
as  to  the  eternal  destiny  of  man.  He  seems  to  have 
thought  that  he  could  control  the  Jews,  at  least,  by 
rewards  and  punishments  in  this  world,  and  so  he 
kept  the  frightful  realities  of  eternal  joy  and  torment 
a  profound  secret  from  the  people  of  his  choice.  He 
thought  it  far  more  important  to  tell  the  Jews  their 
origin  than  to  enlighten  them  as  to  their  destiny. 

We  must  remember  that  every  tribe  and  nation 
has  some  way  in  which,  the  more  striking  phenomena 


48  SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES. 

of  nature  are  accounted  for.  These  accounts  are 
handed  down  by  tradition,  changed  by  numberless 
narrators  as  intelligence  increases,  or  to  account  for 
newly  discovered  facts,  or  for  the  purpose  of  satisfy- 
ing the  appetite  for  the  marvelous. 

The  way  in  which  a  tribe  or  nation  accounts  for 
day  and  night,  the  change  of  seasons,  the  fall  of  snow 
and  rain,  the  flight  of  birds,  the  origin  of  the  rain- 
bow, the  peculiarities  of  animals,  the  dreams  of  sleep, 
the  visions  of  the  insane,  the  existence  of  earth- 
quakes, volcanoes,  storms,  lightning  and  the  thousand 
things  that  attract  the  attention  and  excite  the 
wonder,  fear  or  admiration  of  mankind,  may  be  called 
the  philosophy  of  that  tribe  or  nation.  And  as  all 
phenomena  are,  by  savage  and  barbaric  man 
accounted  for  as  the  action  of  intelligent  beings  for 
the  accomplishment  of  certain  objects,  and  as  these 
beings  were  supposed  to  have  the  power  to  assist  or 
injure  man,  certain  things  were  supposed  necessary 
for  man  to  do  in  order  to  gain  the  assistance,  and 
avoid  the  anger  of  these  gods.  Out  of  this  belief 
grew  certain  ceremonies,  and  these  ceremonies  united 
with  the  belief,  formed  religion ;  and  consequently 
every  religion  has  for  its  foundation  a  misconception 
of  the    cause   of  phenomena. 


SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES.  49 

All  worship  is  necessarily  based  upon  the 
belief  that  some  being  exists  who  can,  if  he  will, 
change  the  natural  order  of  events.  The  savage 
prays  to  a  stone  that  he  calls  a  god,  while  the 
christian  prays  to  a  god  that  he  calls  a  spirit, 
and  the  prayers  of  both  are  equally  useful.  The 
savage  and  the  christian  put  behind  the  Universe 
an  intelligent  cause,  and  this  cause  whether  repre- 
sented by  one  god  or  many,  has  been,  in  all  ages,  the 
object  of  all  worship.  To  carry  a  fetich,  to  utter  a 
prayer,  to  count  beads,  to  abstain  from  food,  to 
sacrifice  a  lamb,  a  child  or  an  enemy,  are  simply 
different  ways  by  which  the  accomplishment  of  the 
same  object  is  sought,  and  are  all  the  offspring  of  the 
same  error. 

Many  systems  of  religion  must  have  existed 
many  ages  before  the  art  of  writing  was  discovered, 
and  must  have  passed  through  many  changes  before 
the  stories,  miracles,  histories,  prophesies  and  mis- 
takes became  fixed  and  petrified  in  written  words. 
After  that,  change  was  possible  only  by  giving  new 
meanings  to  old  words,  a  process  rendered  necessary 
by  the  continual  acquisition  of  facts  somewhat  incon- 
sistent with  a  literal  interpretation  of  the  "  sacred 
records."     In  this  way  an  honest  faith  often  prolongs 


5o  SOME    MISTAKES    OE    MOSES. 

its  life  by  dishonest  methods  ;  and  in  this  way  the 
Christians  of  to-day  are  trying  to  harmonize  the 
Mosaic  account  of  creation  with  the  theories  and 
discoveries  of  modern  science. 

Admitting  that  Moses  was  the  author  of  the 
Pentateuch,  or  that  he  gave  to  the  Jews  a  religion, 
the  question  arises  as  to  where  he  obtained  his  infor- 
mation. We  are  told  by  the  theologians  that  he 
received  his  knowledge  from  God,  and  that  every 
word  he  wrote  was  and  is  the  exact  truth.  It  is 
admitted  at  the  same  time  that  he  was  an  adopted 
son  of  Pharaoh's  daughter,  and  enjoyed  the  rank  and 
privilege  of  a  prince.  Under  such  circumstances,  he 
must  have  been  well  acquainted  with  the  literature, 
philosophy  and  religion  of  the  Egyptians,  and  must 
have  known  what  they  believed  and  taught  as  to  the 
creation  of  the  world. 

Now,  if  the  account  of  the  origin  of  this  earth  as 
given  by  Moses  is  substantially  like  that  given  by 
the  Egyptians,  then  we  must  conclude  that  he  learned 
it  from  them.  Should  we  imagine  that  he  was 
divinely  inspired  because  he  gave  to  the  Jews  what 
the  Egyptians  had  given  him  ? 

The  Egyptian  priests  taught  first,  that  a  god 
created  the  original   matter,  leaving  it  in  a  state  of 


SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES.  5 1 

chaos  ;  second,  that  a  god  moulded  it  into  form ; 
third,  that  the  breath  of  a  god  moved  upon  the  face 
of  the  deep ;  fourth,  that  a  god  created  simply  by 
saying  "Let  it  be ; "  fifth,  that  a  god  created  light 
before  the  sun  existed. 

Nothing  can  be  clearer  than  that  Moses  received 
from  the  Egyptians  the  principal  parts  of  his  narra- 
tive, making  such  changes  and  additions  as  were 
necessary  to  satisfy  the  peculiar  superstitions  of  his 
own  people. 

If  some  man  at  the  present  day  should  assert  that 
he  had  received  from  God  the  theories  of  evolution, 
the  survival  of  the  fittest,  and  the  law  of  heredity, 
and  we  should  afterwards  find  that  he  was  hot  only 
an  Englishman,  but  had  lived  in  the  family  of  Charles 
Darwin,  we  certainly  would  account  for  his  having 
these  theories  in  a  natural  way,  So,  if  Darwin  him- 
self should  pretend  that  he  was  inspired,  and  had 
obtained  his  peculiar  theories  from  God,  we  should 
probably  reply  that  his  grandfather  suggested  the 
the  same  ideas,  and  that  Lamarck  published  substan- 
tially the  same  theories  the  same  year  that  Mr. 
Darwin  was  born. 

Now,  if  we  have  sufficient  courage,  we  will,  by 
the  same  course  of  reasoning,  account  for  the  story 


52  SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES. 

of  creation  found  in  the  bible.  We  will  say  that 
it  contains  the  belief  of  Moses,  and  that  he  received 
his  information  from  the  Egyptians,  and  not  from 
God.  If  we  take  the  account  as  the  absolute  truth 
and  use  it  for  the  purpose  of  determining  the  value 
of  modern  thought,  scientific  advancement  becomes 
impossible.  And  even  if  the  account  of  the  Creation 
as  given  by  Moses  should  turn  out  to  be  true,  and 
should  be  60  admitted  by  all  the  scientific  world,  the 
claim  that  he  was  inspired  would  still  be  without  the 
least  particle  of  proof.  We  would  be  forced  to  admit 
that  he  knew  more  than  we  had  supposed.  It  cer- 
tainly is  no  proof  that  a  man  is  inspired  simply 
because  he  is  right. 

No  one  pretends  that  Shakespeare  was  inspired, 
and  yet  all  the  writers  of  the  books  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment put  together,  could  not  have  produced 
Hamlet. 

Why  should  we,  looking  upon  some  rough  and 
awkward  thing,  or  god  in  stone,  say  that  it  must  have 
been  produced  by  some  inspired  sculptor,  and  with  the 
same  breath  pronounce  the  Venus  de  Milo  to  be  the 
work  of  man?  Why  should  we,  looking  at  some 
ancient  daub  of  angel,  saint  or  virgin,  say  its  painter 
must  have  been  assisted  by  a  god? 


SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES.  53 

Let  us  account  for  all  we  see  by  the  facts  we 
know.  If  there  are  things  for  which  we  cannot 
account,  let  us  wait  for  light.  To  account  for  any- 
thing by  supernatural  agencies  is,  in  fact  to  say  that 
we  do  not  know.  Theology  is  not  what  we  know 
about  God,  but  what  we  do  not  know  about  Nature. 
In  order  to  increase  our  respect  for  the  bible,  it 
became  necessary  for  the  priests  to  exalt  and  extol 
that  book,  and  at  the  same  time  to  decry  and  belittle 
the  reasoning  powers  of  man.  The  whole  power  of 
the  pulpit  has  been  used  for  hundreds  of  years  to 
destroy  the  confidence  of  man  in  himself — to  induce 
him  to  distrust  his  own  powers  of  thought,  to  believe 
that  he  was  wholly  unable  to  decide  any  question  for 
himself,  and  that  all  human  virtue  consists  in  faith 
and  obedience.  The  Church  has  said,  "  Believe,  and 
obey!  If  you  reason,  you  will  become  an  unbeliever, 
and  unbelievers  will  be  lost.  If  you  disobey,  you 
will  do  so  through  vain  pride  and  curiosity,  and  will, 
like  Adam  and  Eve,  be  thrust  from  paradise 
forever  !  " 

For  my  part,  I  care  nothing  for  what  the  Church 
says,  except  in  so  far  as  it  accords  with  my  reason ; 
and  the  bible  is  nothing  to  me,  only  in  so  far  as  it 
agrees  with  what  I  think  or  know. 


54  SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES. 

All  books  should  be  examined  in  the  same  spirit, 
and  truth  should  be  welcomed  and  falsehood  ex- 
posed, no  matter  in  what  volume  they  may  be 
found. 

Let  us  in  this  spirit  examine  the  Peutateuch ; 
and  if  anything  appears  unreasonable,  contradictory 
or  absurd,  let  us  have  the  honesty  and  courage 
to  admit  it.  Certainly  no  good  can  result  either 
from  deceiving  ourselves  or  others.  Many  millions 
have  implicitly  believed  this  book,  and  have 
just  as  implicitly  believed  that  polygamy  was 
sanctioned  by  God.  Millions  have  regarded  this 
book  as  the  foundation  of  all  human  progress, 
and  at  the  same  time  looked  upon  slavery  as  a 
divine  institution.  Millions  have  declared  this  book 
to  have  been  infinitely  holy,  and  to  prove  that 
they  were  right,  have  imprisoned,  robbed  and 
burned  their  fellow  men.  The  inspiration  of  this 
book  has  been  established  by  famine,  sword  and 
fire,  by  dungeon,  chain  and  whip,  by  dagger  and 
by  rack,  by  force  and  fear  and  fraud,  and  genera- 
tions have  been  frightened  by  threats  of  hell,  and 
bribed  with  promises  of  heaven. 

Let  us  examine  a  portion  of  this  book,  not  in  the 
darkness  of  our  fear,  but  in  the  light  of  reason. 


SOME   MISTAKES   OF    MOSES.  55 

And  first,  let  us  examine  the  account  given  of 
the  Creation  of  this  world,  commenced,  according  to 
the  bible,  on  Monday  morning  about  five  thousand 
eight  hundred  and  eighty-three  years  ago. 


VI. 

MONDAY. 

Moses  commences  his  story  by  telling  us  that 
in  the  beginning  God  created  the  heaven 
and  the  earth. 

If  this  means  anything,  it  means  that  God 
produced,  caused  to  exist,  called  into  being,  the 
heaven  and  the  earth.  It  will  not  do  to  say  that  he 
formed  the  heaven  and  the  earth  of  previously 
existing  matter.  Moses  conveys,  and  intended  to 
convey  the  idea  that  the  matter  of  which  the  heaven 
and  the  earth  are  composed,  was  created. 

It  is  impossible  for  me  to  conceive  of  something 
being  created  from  nothing.  Nothing,  regarded  in 
the  light  of  a  raw  material,  is  a  decided  failure.  I 
cannot  conceive  of  matter  apart  from  force.  Neither 
is  it  possible  to  think  of  force  disconnected  with 
matter.  You  cannot  imagine  matter  going  back  to 
absolute  nothing.  Neither  can  you  imagine  nothing 
being  changed  into  something.  .You  may  be 
eternally  damned  if  you  do  not  say  that  you  can 
conceive  these  things,  but  you  cannot  conceive  them. 


SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES.  5/ 

Such  is  the  constitution  cf  the  human  mind  that  it 
cannot  even  think  of  a  commencement  or  an  end  ot 
matter,  or  force. 

If  God  created  the  universe,  there  was  a  time 
when  he  commenced  to  create.  Back  of  that  com- 
mencement there  must  have  been  an  eternity.  In 
that  eternity  what  was  this  God  doing?  He  certainly 
did  not  think.  There  was  nothing  to  think  about. 
He  did  not  remember.  Nothing  had  ever  happened. 
What  did  he  do?  Can  you  imagine  anything  more 
absurd  than  an  infinite  intelligence  in  infinite  nothing 
wasting  an  eternity? 

I  do  not  pretend  to  tell  how  all  these  things  really 
are ;  but  I  do  insist  that  a  statement  that  cannot 
possibly  be  comprehended  by  any  human  being,  and 
that  appears  utterly  impossible,  repugnant  to  every 
fact  of  experience,  and  contrary  to  everything  that 
we  really  know,  must  be  rejected  by  every  honest 
man. 

We  can  conceive  of  eternity,  because  we  cannot 
conceive  of  a  cessation  of  time.  We  can  conceive  of 
infinite  space  because  we  cannot  conceive  of  so  much 
matter  that  our  imagination  will  not  stand  upon  the 
farthest  star,  and  see  infinite  space  beyond.  In  other 
words,  we  cannot  conceive  of  a  cessation  of  time ; 


58  SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES. 

therefore  eternity  is  a  necessity  of  the  mind. 
Eternity  sustains  the  same  relation  to  time  that  space 
does  to  matter. 

In  the  time  of  Moses,  it  was  perfectly  safe  for  him 
to  write  an  account  of  the  creation  of  the  world.  He 
had  simply  to  put  in  form  the  crude  notions  of  the 
people.  At  that  time,  no  other  Jew  could  have 
written  a  better  account.  Upon  that  subject  he  felt 
at  liberty  to  give  his  imagination  full  play.  There 
was  no  one  who  could  authoritatively  contradict  any- 
thing he  might  say.  It  was  substantially  the  same 
story  that  had  been  imprinted  in  curious  characters 
upon  the  clay  records  of  Babylon,  the  gigantic 
monuments  of  Egypt,  and  the  gloomy  temples  of 
India.  In  those  days  there  was  an  almost  infinite 
difference  between  the  educated  and  ignorant.  The 
people  were  controlled  almost  entirely  by  signs  and 
wonders.  By  the  levef  of  fear,  priests  moved  the 
world.  The  sacred  records  were  made  and  kept, 
and  altered  by  them.  The  people  could  not  read, 
and  looked  upon  one  who  could,  as  almost  a  god. 
In  our  day  it  is  hard  to  conceive  of  the  influence  of 
an  educated  class  in  a  barbarous  age.  It  was  only 
necessary  to  produce  the  "  sacred  record,"  and 
ignorance  fell  upon  its  face.     The  people  were  taught 


SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES.  59 

that  the  record  was  inspired,  and  therefore  true. 
They  were  not  taught  that  it  was  true,  and  therefore 
inspired. 

After  all,  the  real  question  is  not  whether  the 
bible  is  inspired,  but  whether  it  is  true.  If  it  is  true, 
it  does  not  need  to  be  inspired.  If  it  is  true,  it 
makes  no  difference  whether  it  was  written  by  a  man 
or  a  god.  The  multiplication  table  is  just  as  useful, 
just  as  true  as  though  God  had  arranged  the  figures 
himself.  If  the  bible  is  really  true,  the  claim  of 
inspiration  need  not  be  urged ;  and  if  it  is  not  true, 
its  inspiration  can  hardly  be  established.  As  a 
matter  of  fact,  the  truth  does  not  need  to  be  inspired. 
Nothing  needs  inspiration  except  a  falsehood  or  a 
mistake.  Where  truth  ends,  where  probability  stops, 
inspiration  begins.  A  fact  never  went  into  partner- 
ship with  a  miracle.  Truth  does  not  need  the 
assistance  of  miracle.  A  fact  will  fit  every  other 
fact  in  the  Universe,  because  it  is  the  product  of  all 
other  facts.  A  lie  will  fit  nothing  except  another  lie 
made  for  the  express  purpose  of  fitting  it.  After  a 
while  the  man  gets  tired  of  lying,  and  then  the  last 
lie  will  not  fit  the  next  fact,  and  then  there  is  an 
opportunity  to  use  a  miracle.  Just  at  that  point,  it 
is  necessary  to  have  a  little  inspiration. 


60  SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES. 

It  seems  to  me  that  reason  is  the  highest  attribute 
of  man,  and  that  if  there  can  be  any  communication 
from  God  to  man,  it  must  be  addressed  to  his  reason. 
It  does  not  seem  possible  that  in  order  to  understand 
a  message  from  God  it  is  absolutely  essential  to 
throw  our  reason  away.  How  could  God  make 
known  his  will  to  any  being  destitute  of  reason  ? 
How  can  any  man  accept  as  a  revelation  from  God 
that  which  is  unreasonable  to  him  ?  God  cannot 
make  a  revelation  to  another  man  for  me.  He  must 
make  it  to  me,  and  until  he  convinces  my  reason  that 
it  is  true,  I  cannot  receive  it. 

The  statement  that  in  the  beginning  God  created 
the  heaven  and  the  earth,  I  cannot  accept.  It  is 
contrary  to  my  reason,  and  I  cannot  believe  it.  It 
appears  reasonable  to  me  that  force  has  existed  from 
eternity.  Force  cannot,  as  it  appears  to  me,  exist 
apart  from  matter.  Force,  in  its  nature,  is  forever 
active,  and  without  matter  it  could  not  act ;  and  so  I 
think  matter  must  have  existed  forever.  To  con- 
ceive of  matter  without  force,  or  of  force  without 
matter,  or  of  a  time  when  neither  existed,  or  of 
a  being  who  existed  for  an  eternity  without 
either,  and  who  out  of  nothing  created  both,  is  to 
me  utterly   impossible.     I   may  be  damned  on  this 


SOME    MISTAKES    OK    MOSES.  6 1 

account,   but   I    cannot    help   it.     In    my   judgment, 
Moses  was  mistaken. 

It  will  not  do  to  say  that  Moses  merely  intended 
to  tell  what  God  did,  in  making-  the  heavens  and  the 
earth  out  of  matter  then  in  existence.  He  distinctly 
states  that  in  the  beginning  God  created  them.  If 
this  account  is  true,  we  must  believe  that  God, 
existing  in  infinite  space  surrounded  by  eternal 
nothing,  naught  and  void,  created,  produced,  called 
into  being-,  willed  into  existence  this  universe  of 
countless  stars. 

The  next  thing  we  are  told  by  this  inspired 
gentleman  is,  that  God  created  light,  and  proceeded 
to  divide  it  from  the  darkness. 

Certainly,  the  person  who  wrote  this  believed 
that  darkness  was  a  thing,  an  entity,  a  material  that 
could  get  mixed  and  tangled  up  with  light,  and  that 
these  entities,  light  and  darkness,  had  to  be  separated. 
In  his  imagination  he  probably  saw  God  throwing 
pieces  and  chunks  of  darkness  on  one  side,  and  rays 
and  beams  of  light  on  the  other.  It  is  hard  for  a 
man  who  has  been  born  but  once  to  understand 
these  things.  For  my  part  I  cannot  understand  how 
light  can  be  separated  from  darkness.  I  had  always 
supposed  that  darkness  was  simply  the   absence   of 


62  SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES. 

light,  and  that  under  no  circumstances  could  it  be 
necessary  to  take  the  darkness  away  from  the  light. 
It  is  certain,  however,  that  Moses  believed  darkness 
to  be  a  form  of  matter,  because  I  find  that  in  another 
place  he  speaks  of  a  darkness  that  could  be  felt. 
They  used  to  have  on  exhibition  at  Rome  a  bottle 
of  the  darkness  that  overspread  Egypt. 

You  cannot  divide  light  from  darkness  any  more 
than  you  can  divide  heat  from  cold.  Cold  is  an 
absence  of  heat,  and  darkness  is  an  absence  of  light. 
I  suppose  that  we  have  no  conception  of  absolute 
cold.  We  know  only  degrees  of  heat.  Twenty 
degrees  below  zero  is  just  twenty  degrees  warmer 
than  forty  degrees  below  zero.  Neither  cold  nor 
darkness  are  entities,  and  these  words  express  simply 
either  the  absolute  or  partial  absence  of  heat  or  light. 
I  cannot  conceive,  how  light  can  be  divided  from 
darkness,  but  I  can  conceive  how  a  barbarian  several 
thousand  years  ago,  writing  upon  a  subject  about 
which  he  knew  nothing,  could  make  a  mistake. 
The  creator  of  li^ht  could  not  have  written  in  this 
way.  If  such  a  being  exists,  he  must  have  known 
the  nature  of  that  "  mode  of  motion  "  that  paints  the 
earth  on  every  eye,  and  clothes  in  garments  seven- 
hued  this  universe  of  worlds. 


VTI. 

TUESDAY. 

We  are  next  informed  by  Moses  that  "  God 
said  Let  there  be  a  firmament  in  the  midst 
of  the  waters,  and  let  it  divide  the  waters  from  the 
waters  ;  "  and  that  "  God  made  the  firmament,  and 
divided  the  waters  which  were  under  the  firmament 
from  the  waters  which  were  above  the  firmament." 

What  did  the  writer  mean  by  the  word  firma- 
ment ?  Theoloeians  now  tell  us  that  he  meant  an 
"  expanse."  This  will  not  do.  How  could  an 
expanse  divide  the  waters  from  the  waters,  so  that 
the  waters  above  the  expanse  would  not  fall  into  and 
mingle  with  the  waters  below  the  expanse  ?  The 
truth  is  that  Moses  regarded  the  firmament  as  a  solid 
affair.  It  was  where  God  lived,  and  where  water 
was  kept.  It  was  for  this  reason  that  they  used  to 
pray  for  rain.  They  supposed  that  some  angel  could 
with  a  lever  raise  a  gate  and  let  out  the  quantity  of 
moisture  desired.  It  was  with  the  water  from  this 
firmament  that  the  world  was  drowned  when  the 
windows  of  heaven   were  opened.     It   was  in   this 


64  SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES. 

firmament  that  the  sons  of  God  lived — the  sons  who 
"  saw  the  daughters  of  men  that  they  were  fair  and 
took  them  wives  of  all  which  they  chose."  The 
issue  of  such  marriages  were  giants,  and  "  the  same 
became  mighty  men  which  were  of  old,  men  of 
renown." 

Nothing  is  clearer  than  that  Moses  regarded  the 
firmament  as  a  vast  material  division  that  separated 
the  waters  of  the  world,  and  upon  whose  floor  God 
lived,  surrounded  by  his  sons.  In  no  other  way  could 
he  account  for  rain.  Where  did  the  water  come 
from  ?  He  knew  nothing  about  the  laws  of  evapo- 
ration. He  did  not  know  that  the  sun  wooed  with 
amorous  kisses  the  waves  of  the  sea,  and  that  they, 
clad  in  glorified  mist  rising  to  meet  their  lover,  were, 
by  disappointment,  changed  to  tears  and  fell  as 
rain. 

The  idea  that  the  firmament  was  the  abode  of 
the  Deity  must  have  been  in  the  mind  of  Moses 
when  he  related  the  dream  of  Jacob.  "  And  he 
dreamed,  and  behold,  a  ladder  set  upon  the  earth 
and  the  top  of  it  reached  to  heaven  ;  and  behold  the 
angels  of  God  ascending  and  descending  on  it ;  and 
behold  the  Lord  stood  above  it  and  said,  I  am  the 
Lord  God." 


SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES.  65 

So,  when  the  people  were  building  the  tower  of 
Babel  "  the  Lord  came  down  to  see  the  city,  and  the 
tower  which  the  children  of  men  builded.  And  the 
Lord  said,  Behold  the  people  is  one,  and  they  have 
all  one  language  :  and  this  they  begin  to  do  ;  and 
nothing  will  be  restrained  from  them  which  they 
imagined  to  do.  Go  to,  let  us  go  down  and  confound 
their  language  that  they  may  not  understand  one 
another's  speech." 

The  man  who  wrote  that  absurd  account  must 
have  believed  that  God  lived  above  the  earth,  in  the 
firmament.  The  same  idea  was  in  the  mind  of  the 
Psalmist  when  he  said  that  God  "bowed  the  heavens 
and  came  down." 

Of  course,  God  could  easily  remove  any  person 
bodily  to  heaven,  as  it  was  but  a  little  way  above 
the  earth.  "Enoch  walked  with  God,  and  he  was 
not,  for  God  took  him."  The  accounts  in  the  bible 
of  the  ascension  of  Elijah,  Christ  and  St.  Paul  were 
born  of  the  belief  that  the  firmament  was  the  dwelling- 
place  of  God.  It  probably  never  occurred  to  these 
writers  that  if  the  firmament  was  seven  or  eight  miles 
away,  Enoch  and  the  rest  would  have  been  frozen 
perfectly  stiff  long  before  the  journey  could  have 
been  completed.     Possibly  Elijah  might  have  made 

5 


66  SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES. 

the  voyage,  as  he  was  carried  to  heaven  in  a  chariot 
of  fire  "by  a  whirlwind." 

The  truth  is,  that  Moses  was  mistaken,  and 
upon  that  mistake  the  christians  located  their 
heaven  and  their  hell.  The  telescope  destroyed 
the  firmament,  did  away  with  the  heaven  of  the 
New  Testament,  rendered  the  ascension  of  our 
Lord  and  the  assumption  of  his  Mother  infinitely 
absurd,  crumbled  to  chaos  the  gates  and  palaces  of 
the  New  "Jerusalem,  and  in  their  places  gave  to  man 
a  wilderness  of  worlds. 


VIII. 
WEDNESDAY. 

We  are  next  informed  by  the  historian  of 
Creation,  that  after  God  had  finished 
making  the  firmament  and  had  succeeded  in  dividing 
the  waters  by  means  of  an  "expanse,"  he  proceeded 
"to  gather  the  waters  on  the  earth  together  in  seas, 
so  that  the  dry  land  might  appear." 

Certainly  the  writer  of  this  did  not  have  any 
conception  of  the  real  form  of  the  earth.  He  could 
not  have  known  anything  of  the  attraction  of  gravi- 
tation. He  must  have  regarded  the  earth  as  flat  and 
supposed  that  it  required  considerable  force  and 
power  to  induce  the  water  to  leave  the  mountains 
and  collect  in  the  valleys.  Just  as  soon  as  the  water 
was  forced  to  run  down  hill,  the  dry  land  appeared, 
and  the  grass  began  to  grow,  and  the  mantles  of 
green  were  thrown  over  the  shoulders  of  the  hills, 
and  the  trees  laughed  into  bud  and  blossom,  and  the 
branches  were  laden  with  fruit.  And  all  this 
happened  before  a  ray  had  left  the  quiver  of  the  sun, 
before  a  cditterin^  beam  had  thrilled  the  bosom  of  a 


6<S  SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES. 

flower,  and  before  the  Dawn  with  trembling  hands 
had  drawn  aside  the  curtains  of  the  East  and 
welcomed  to  her  arms  the  eager  god  of  Day. 

It  does  not  seem  to  me  that  grass  and  trees  could 
grow  and  ripen  into  seed  and  fruit  without  the  sun. 
According  to  the  account,  this  all  happened  on  the 
third  day.  Now,  if,  as  the  christians  say,  Moses  did 
not  mean  by  the  word  day  a  period  of  twenty-four 
hours,  but  an  immense  and  almost  measureless  space 
of  time,  and  as  God  did  not,  according  to  this  view 
make  any  animals  until  the  fifth  day,  that  is,  not  for 
millions  of  years  after  he  made  the  grass  and  trees, 
for  what  purpose  did  he  cause  the  trees  to  bear 
fruit  ? 

Moses  says  that  God  said  on  the  third  day,  "  Let 
the  earth  bring  forth  grass,  the  herb  yielding  seed, 
and  the  fruit  tree  yielding  fruit  after  his  kind,  whose 
seed  is  in  itself  upon  the  earth  ;  and  it  was  so.  And 
the  earth  brought  forth  grass  and  herb  yielding  seed 
after  his  kind,  and  the  tree  yielding  fruit  whose  seed 
was  in  itself  after  his  kind ;  and  God  saw  that  it  was 
good,  and  the  evening  and  the  morning  were  the 
third  day." 

There  was  nothing  to  eat  this  fruit ;  not  an  insect 
with  painted  wings  sought  the  honey  of  the  flowers ; 


SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES.  69 

not  a  single  living,  breathing  thing  upon  the  earth. 
Plenty  of  grass,  a  great  variety  of  herbs,  an  abundance 
of  fruit,  but  not  a  mouth  in  all  the  world.  If  Moses 
is  right,  this  state  of  things  lasted  only  two  days ;  but 
if  the  modern  theologians  are  correct,  it  continued 
for  millions  of  ages. 

"  It  is  now  well  known  that  the  organic  history  of 
the  earth  can  be  properly  divided  into  five  epochs — 
the  Primordial,  Primary,  Secondary,  Tertiary,  and 
Quaternary.  Each  of  these  epochs  is  characterized 
by  animal  and  vegetable  life  peculiar  to  itself.  In  the 
First  will  be  found  Algse  and  Skull-less  Vertebrates, 
in  the  Second,  Ferns  and  Fishes,  in  the  Third,  Pine 
Forests  and  Reptiles,  in  the  Fourth,  Foliaceous 
Forests  and  Mammals,  and  in  the  Fifth,  Man." 

How  much  more  reasonable  this  is  than  the  idea 
that  the  Earth  was  covered  with  grass,  and  herbs, 
and  trees  loaded  with  fruit  for  millions  of  years 
before  an  animal  existed. 

There  is,  in  Nature,  an  even  balance  forever  kept 
between  the  total  amounts  of  animal  and  vegetable 
life.  "In  her  wonderful  economy  she  must  form  and 
bountifully  nourish  her  vegetable  progeny — twin- 
brother  life  to  her,  with  that  of  animals.  The  per- 
fect balance   between   plant    existences    and   animal 


^O  SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES. 

existences  must  always  be  maintained,  while  matter 
courses  through  the  eternal  circle,  becoming  each  in 
turn.  If  an  animal  be  resolved  into  its  ultimate 
constituents  in  a  period  according  to  the  surrounding 
circumstances,  say,  of  four  hours,  of  four  months,  of 
four  years,  or  even  of  four  thousand  years,— for  it  is 
impossible  to  deny  that  there  may  be  instances  of  all 
these  periods  during  which  the  process  has  continued 
— those  elements  which  assume  the  gaseous  form 
mingle  at  once  with  the  atmosphere  and  are  taken  up 
from  it  without  delay  by  the  ever-open  mouths  of 
vegetable  life.  By  a  thousand  pores  in  every  leaf 
the  carbonic  acid  which  renders  the  atmosphere  unfit 
for  animal  life  is  absorbed,  the  carbon  being  sepa- 
rated, and  assimilated  to  form  the  vegetable  fibre, 
which,  as  wood,  makes  and  furnishes  our  houses  and 
ships,  is  burned  for  our  warmth,  or  is  stored  up 
under  pressure  for  coal.  All  this  carbon  has  played 
its  part,  and  many  parts  in  its  time,  as  animal 
existences  from  monad  up  to  man.  Our  mahogany 
of  to-day  has  been  many  negroes  in  its  turn,  and 
before  the  African  existed,  was  integral  portions  of 
many  a  generation  of  extinct  species." 

It  seems  reasonable  to  suppose  that  certain  kinds 
of   vegetation  and  certain  kinds  of  animals  should 


SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES.  7 1 

exist  together,  and  that  as  the  character  of  the 
vegetation  changed,  a  corresponding  change  would 
take  place  in  the  animal  world.  It  may  be  that  I  am 
led  to  these  conclusions  by  "  total  depravity,"  or  that 
I  lack  the  necessary  humility  of  spirit  to  satisfactorily 
harmonize  Haeckel  and  Moses  ;  or  that  I  am  carried 
away  by  pride,  blinded  by  reason,  given  over  to 
hardness  of  heart  that  I  might  be  damned,  but  I 
never  can  believe  that  the  earth  was  covered  with 
leaves,  and  buds,  and  flowers,  and  fruits  before  the 
sun  with  glittering  spear  had  driven  back  the  hosts 
of  Night. 


IX. 

THURSDAY. 

After  the  world  was  covered  with  vegetation,  it 
occurred  to  Moses  that  it  was  about  time  to 
make  a  sun  and  moon ;  and  so  we  are  told  that  on 
the  fourth  day  God  said,  "  Let  there  be  light  in  the 
firmament  of  the  heaven  to  divide  the  day  from  the 
night ;  and  let  them  be  for  signs  and  for  seasons,  and 
for  days  and  years ;  and  let  them  be  for  lights  in  the 
firmament  of  the  heaven  to  give  light  upon  the  earth  ; 
and  it  was  so.  And  God  made  two  great  lights  ;  the 
greater  light  to  rule  the  day,  and  the  lesser  light  to 
rule  the  night;  he  made  the  stars  also." 

Can  we  believe  that  the  inspired  writer  had  any 
idea  of  the  size  of  the  sun  ?  Draw  a  circle  five  inches 
in  diameter,  and  by  its  side  thrust  a  pin  through  the 
paper.  The  hole  made  by  the  pin  will  sustain  about 
the  same  relation  to  the  circle  that  the  earth  does  to 
the  sun.  Did  he  know  that  the  sun  was  eight 
hundred  and  sixty  thousand  miles  in  diameter;  that 
it  was  enveloped  in  an  ocean  of  fire  thousands  of 
miles  in  depth,  hotter  even  than  the  christian's  hell, 


SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES.  73 

over  which  sweep  tempests  of  flame  moving  at  the 
rate  of  one  hundred  miles  a  second,  compared  with 
which  the  wildest  storm  that  ever  wrecked  the  forests 
of  this  world  was  but  a  calm  ?  Did  he  know  that  the 
sun  every  moment  of  time  throws  out  as  much  heat 
as  could  be  generated  by  the  combustion  of  mill- 
ions upon  millions  of  tons  of  coal?  Did  he  know 
that  the  volume  of  the  Earth  is  less  than  one-millionth 
of  that  of  the  sun  ?  Did  he  know  of  the  one  hundred 
and  four  planets  belonging  to  our  solar  system,  all 
children  of  the  sun  ?  Did  he  know  of  Jupiter  eighty- 
five  thousand  miles  in  diameter,  hundreds  of  times  as 
large  as  our  earth,  turning  on  his  axis  at  the  rate  of 
twenty-five  thousand  miles  an  hour  accompanied  by 
four  moons,  making  the  tour  of  his  orbit  in  fifty  years, 
a  distance  of  three  thousand  million  miles  ?  Did  he 
know  anything  about  Saturn,  his  rings  and  his  eight 
moons  ?  Did  he  have  the  faintest  idea  that  all  these 
planets  were  once  a  part  of  the  sun ;  that  the  vast 
luminary  was  once  thousands  of  millions  of  miles  in 
diameter;  that  Neptune,  Uranus,  Saturn,  Jupiter 
and  Mars  were  all  born  before  our  earth,  and  that  by 
no  possibility  could  this  world  have  existed  three 
days,  nor  three  periods,  nor  three  "good  whiles" 
before  its  source,  the  sun  ? 


74  SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES. 

Moses  supposed  the  sun  to  be  about  three  or  four 
feet  in  diameter  and  the  moon  about  half  that  size. 
Compared  with  the  earth  they  were  but  simple 
specks.  This  idea  seems  to  have  been  shared  by  all 
the  "inspired"  men.  We  find  in  the  book  of  Joshua 
that  the  sun  stood  still,  and  the  moon  stayed  until 
the  people  had  avenged  themselves  upon  their 
enemies.  "  So  the  sun  stood  still  in  the  midst 
of  heaven,  and  hasted  not  to  go  down  about  a 
whole  day." 

We  are  told  that  the  sacred  writer  wrote  in 
common  speech  as  we  do  when  we  talk  about  the 
rising  and  setting  of  the  sun,  and  that  all  he  intended 
to  say  was  that  the  earth  ceased  to  turn  on  its  axis 
"for  about  a  whole  day." 

My  own  opinion  is  that  General  Joshua  knew  no 
more  about  the  motions  of  the  earth  than  he  did  about 
mercy  and  justice.  If  he  had  known  that  the  earth 
turned  upon  its  axis  at  the  rate  of  a  thousand  miles 
an  hour,  and  swept  in  its  course  about  the  sun  at  the 
rate  of  sixty-eight  thousand  miles  an  hour,  he  would 
have  doubled  the  hailstones,  spoken  of  in  the  same 
chapter,  that  the  Lord  cast  down  from  heaven,  and 
allowed  the  sun  and  moon  to  rise  and  set  in  the 
usual  way. 


SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES.  /5 

It  is  impossible  to  conceive  of  a  more  absurd 
story  than  this  about  the  stopping  of  the  sun  and 
moon,  and  yet  nothing  so  excites  the  malice  of  the 
orthodox  preacher  as  to  call  its  truth  in  question. 
Some  endeavor  to  account  for  the  phenomenon  by 
natural  causes,  while  others  attempt  to  show  that  God 
could,  by  the  refraction  of  light  have  made  the  sun 
visible  although  actually  shining  on  the  opposite  side 
of  the  earth.  The  last  hypothesis  has  been  seriously 
urged  by  ministers  within  the  last  few  months.  The 
Rev.  Henry  M.  Morey  of  South  Bend,  Indiana,  says 
"  that  the  phenomenon  was  simply  optical.  The 
rotary  motion  of  the  earth  was  not  disturbed,  but  the 
light  of  the  sun  was  prolonged  by  the  same  laws  of 
refraction  and  reflection  by  which  the  sun  now 
appears  to  be  above  the  horizon  when  it  is  really 
below.  The  medium  through  which  the  sun's  rays 
passed  may  have  been  miraculously  influenced  so  as 
to  have  caused  the  sun  to  linger  above  the  horizon 
long  after  its  usual  time  for  disappearance." 

This  is  the  latest  and  ripest  product  of  christian 
scholarship  upon  this  question  no  doubt,  but  still  it  is 
not  entirely  satisfactory  to  me.  According  to  the 
sacred  account  the  sun  did  not  linger,  merely,  above 
the  horizon,  but  stood  still  "in  the  midst  of  heaven 


SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES. 


for  about  a  whole  day,"  that  is  to  say,  for  about  twelve 
hours.  If  the  air  was  miraculously  changed,  so  that 
it  would  refract  the  rays  of  the  sun  while  the  earth 
turned  over  as  usual  for  "about  a  whole  day,"  then, 
at  the  end  of  that  time  the  sun  must  have  been  visible 
in  the  east,  that  is,  it  must  by  that  time  have  been 
the  next  morning.  According  to  this,  that  most 
wonderful  day  must  have  been  at  least  thirty-six 
hours  in  length.  We  have  first,  the  twelve  hours  of 
natural  light,  then  twelve  hours  of  "refracted  and 
reflected"  light.  By  that  time  it  would  again  be 
morning,  and  the  sun  would  shine  for  twelve  hours 
more  in  the  natural  way,  making  thirty-six  hours 
in  all. 

If  the  Rev.  Morey  would  depend  a  little  less 
on  "refraction"  and  a  little  more  on  "reflection,"  he 
would  conclude  that  the  whole  story  is  simply  a 
barbaric  myth  and  fable. 

It  hardly  seems  reasonable  that  God,  if  there  is 
one,  would  either  stop  the  globe,  change  the  consti- 
tution of  the  atmosphere  or  the  nature  of  light  simply 
to  afford  Joshua  an  opportunity  to  kill  people  on  that 
day  when  he  could  just  as  easily  have  waited  until  the 
next  morning.  It  certainly  cannot  be  very  gratifying 
to  God  for  us  to  believe  such  childish  things. 


SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES.  J  J 

It  has  been  demonstrated  that  force  is  eternal ; 
that  it  is  forever  active,  and  eludes  destruction  by- 
change  of  form.  Motion  is  a  form  of  force,  and  all 
arrested  motion  changes  instantly  to  heat.  The 
earth  turns  upon  its  axis  at  about  one  thousand  miles 
an  hour.  Let  it  be  stopped  and  a  force  beyond  our 
imagination  is  changed  to  heat.  It  has  been  calcu- 
lated that  to  stop  the  world  would  produce  as  much 
heat  as  the  burning  of  a  solid  piece  of  coal  three 
times  the  size  of  the  earth.  And  yet  we  are  asked 
to  believe  that  this  was  done  in  order  that  one 
barbarian  might  defeat  another.  Such  stories  never 
would  have  been  written,  had  not  the  belief  been 
general  that  the  heavenly  bodies  were  as  nothing 
compared  with  the  earth. 

The  view  of  Moses  was  acquiesced  in  by  the 
Jewish  people  and  by  the  Christian  world  for  thou- 
sands of  years.  It  is  supposed  that  Moses  lived 
about  fifteen  hundred  years  before  Christ,  and 
although  he  was  "  inspired,"  and  obtained  his  infor- 
mation directly  from  God,  he  did  not  know  as  much 
about  our  solar  system  as  the  Chinese  did  a  thousand 
years  before  he  was  born.  "  The  Emperor  Chwen- 
hio  adopted  as  an  epoch,  a  conjunction  of  the  planets 
Mercury,  Mars,  Jupiter  and  Saturn,  which  has  been 


J&  SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES. 

shown  by  M.  Bailly  to  have  occurred  no  less  than 
2449  years  before  Christ."  The  ancient  Chinese 
knew  not  only  the  motions  of  the  planets,  but  they 
could  calculate  eclipses.  "  In  the  reign  of  the 
Emperor  Chow-Kang,  the  chief  astronomers,  Ho 
and  Hi  were  condemned  to  death  for  neo-lectinof 
to  announce  a  solar  eclipse  which  took  place  2169 
B.  C,  a  clear  proof  that  the  prediction  of  eclipses  was 
a  part  of  the  duty  of  the  imperial  astronomers." 

Is  it  not  strange  that  a  Chinaman  should  find  out 
by  his  own  exertions  more  about  the  material 
universe  than  Moses  could  when  assisted  by  its 
Creator  ? 

About  eight  hundred  years  after  God  gave 
Moses  the  principal  facts  about  the  creation  of  the 
"  heaven  and  the  earth "  he  performed  another 
miracle  far  more  wonderful  than  stopping  the  world. 
On  this  occasion  he  not  only  stopped  the  earth,  but 
actually  caused  it  to  turn  the  other  way.  A  Jewish 
king  was  sick,  and  God,  in  order  to  convince  him 
that  he  would  ultimately  recover,  offered  to  make 
the  shadow  on  the  dial  go  forward,  or  backward 
ten  degrees.  The  king  thought  it  was  too  easy  a 
thing  to  make  the  shadow  go  forward,  and  asked 
that   it  be  turned   back.      Thereupon,   "  Isaiah    the 


SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES.  79 

prophet  cried  unto  the  Lord,  and  he  brought  the 
shadow  ten  degrees  backward  by  which  it  had  gone 
down  in  the  dial  of  Ahaz."  I  hardly  see  how  this 
miracle  could  be  accounted  for  even  by  "  refraction  " 
and  "  reflection." 

It  seems,  from  the  account,  that  this  stupendous 
miracle  was  performed  after  the  king  had  been 
cured.  The  account  of  the  shadow  gfoingf  backward 
is  given  in  the  eleventh  verse  of  the  twentieth 
chapter  of  Second  Kings,  while  the  cure  is  given  in 
the  seventh  verse  of  the  same  chapter.  "  And 
Isaiah  said,  Take  a  lump  of  figs.  And  they  took  and 
laid  it  on  the  boil,  and  he  recovered." 

Stopping  the  world  and  causing  it  to  turn  back 
ten  degrees  after  that,  seems  to  have  been,  as  the 
boil  was  already  cured  by  the  figs,  a  useless  display 
of  power. 

The  easiest  way  to  account  for  all  these  wonders 
is  to  say  that  the  ''inspired"  writers  were  mistaken. 
In  this  way  a  fearful  burden  is  lifted  from  the  credulity 
of  man,  and  he  is  left  free  to  believe  the  evidences  of 
his  own  senses,  and  the  demonstrations  of  science. 
In  this  way  he  can  emancipate  himself  from  the 
slavery  of  superstition,  the  control  of  the  barbaric 
dead,  and  the  despotism  of  the  church. 


SO  SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES. 

Only  about  a  hundred  years  ago,  Buffon,  the 
naturalist,  was  compelled  by  the  faculty  of  theology 
at  Paris  to  publicly  renounce  fourteen  "errors"  in  his 
work  on  Natural  History  because  they  were  at 
variance  with  the  Mosaic  account  of  creation.  The 
Pentateuch  is  still  the  scientific  standard  of  the 
church,  and  ignorant  priests,  armed  with  that,  pro- 
nounce sentence  upon  the  vast  accomplishments  of 
modern  thought. 


X. 

"HE   MADE  THE   STARS   ALSO." 

Moses  came  very  near  forgetting  about  the 
stars,  and  only  gave  five  words  to  all  the 
hosts  of  heaven.  Can  it  be  possible  that  he  knew 
anything  about  the  stars  beyond  the  mere  fact  that 
he  saw  them  shining  above  him  ? 

Did  he  know  that  the  nearest  star,  the  one  we 
ought  to  be  the  best  acquainted  with,  is  twenty-one 
billion  of  miles  away,  and  that  it  is  a  sun  shining  by 
its  own  light  ?  Did  he  know  of  the  next,  that  is 
thirty-seven  billion  miles  distant  ?  Is  it  possible  that 
he  was  acquainted  with  Sirius,  a  sun  two  thousand 
six  hundred  and  eighty-eight  times  larger  than  our 
own,  surrounded  by  a  system  of  heavenly  bodies, 
several  of  which  are  already  known,  and  distant  from 
us  eighty-two  billion  miles  ?  Did  he  know  that  the 
Polar  star  that  tells  the  mariner  his  course  and 
guided  slaves  to  liberty  and  joy,  is  distant  from  this 
little  world  two  hundred  and  ninety-two  billion  miles, 

6 


82  SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES. 

and  that  Capella  wheels  and  shines  one  hundred  and 
thirty-three  billion  miles  beyond  ?  Did  he  know 
that  it  would  require  about  seventy-two  years  for 
light  to  reach  us  from  this  star  ?  Did  he  know  that 
light  travels  one  hundred  and  eighty-five  thousand 
miles  a  second  ?  Did  he  know  that  some  stars 
are  so  far  away  in  the  infinite  abysses  that  five 
millions  of  years  are  required  for  their  light  to  reach 
this  globe  ? 

If  this  is  true,  and  if  as  the  bible  tells  us,  the 
stars  were  made  after  the  earth,  then  this  world  has 
been  wheeling  in  its  orbit  for  at  least  five  million 
years. 

It  may  be  replied  that  it  was  not  the  intention 
of  God  to  teach  geology  and  astronomy.  Then 
why  did  he  say  anything  upon  these  subjects  ? 
and  if  he  did  say  anything,  why  did  he  not  give 
the  facts  ? 

According  to  the  sacred  records  God  created,  on 
the  first  day,  the  heaven 'and  the  earth,  "moved  upon 
the  face  of  the  waters,"  and  made  the  lieht.  On  the 
second  day  he  made  the  firmament  or  the  "expanse" 
and  divided  the  waters.  On  the  third  day  he 
gathered  the  waters  into  seas,  let  the  dry  land  appear 
and  caused  the  earth  to  bring  forth  grass,  herbs  and 


SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES.  83 

fruit  trees,  and  on  the  fourth  day  he  made  the  sun, 
moon  and  stars  and  set  them  in  the  firmament  of 
heaven  to  give  light  upon  the  earth.  This  division 
of  labor  is  very  striking.  The  work  of  the  other 
"days  is  as  nothing  when  compared  with  that  of  the 
fourth.  Is  it  possible  that  it  required  the  same  time 
and  labor  to  make  the  grass,  herbs  and  fruit  trees, 
that  it  did  to  fill  with  countless  constellations  the 
infinite  expanse  of  space  ? 


XI. 

FRIDAY. 

We  are  then  told  that  on  the  next  day  "  God 
said,  Let  the  waters  bring  forth  abundantly 
the  moving  creatures  that  hath  life,  and  fowl  that 
may  fly  above  the  earth  in  the  open  firmament  of 
heaven.  And  God  created  great  whales  and  every 
living  creature  which  the  waters  brought  forth 
abundantly,  after  their  kind,  and  every  winged  fowl 
after  his  kind,  and  God  saw  that  it  was  good.  And 
God  blessed  them,  saying,  Be  fruitful  and  multiply 
and  fill  the  waters  in  the  seas,  and  let  fowl  multiply 
in  the  earth." 

Is  it  true  that  while  the  dry  land  was  covered 
with  grass,  and  herbs,  and  trees  bearing  fruit,  the 
ocean  was  absolutely  devoid  of  life,  and  so  remained 
for  millions  of  years  ? 

If  Moses  meant  twenty-four  hours  by  the  word 
day,  then  it  would  make  but  little  difference  on  which 
of  the  six  days  animals  were  made  ;  but  if  the  word 


SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES. 


day  was  used  to  express  millions  of  ages,  during 
which  life  was  slowly  evolved  from  monad  up  to 
man,  then  the  account  becomes  infinitely  absurd, 
puerile  and  foolish.  There  is  not  a  scientist  of  high 
standing  who  will  say  that  in  his  judgment  the  earth 
was  covered  with  fruit  bearing  trees  before  the 
moners,  the  ancestors  it  may  be  of  the  human  race, 
felt  in  Laurentian  seas  the  first  faint  throb  of  life. 
Nor  is  there  one  who  will  declare  that  there  was  a 
single  spire  of  grass  before  the  sun  had  poured 
upon  the  world  his  flood  of  gold. 

Why  should  men  in  the  name  of  religion  try  to 
harmonize  the  contradictions  that  exist  between 
Nature  and  a  book  ?  Why  should  philosophers  be 
denounced  for  placing  more  reliance  upon  what  they 
know  than  upon  what  they  have  been  told  ?  If 
there  is  a  God,  it  is  reasonably  certain  that  he  made 
the  world,  but  it  is  by  no  means  certain  that  he  is 
the  author  of  the  bible.  Why  then  should  we  not 
place  greater  confidence  in  Nature  than  in  a  book  ? 
And  even  if  this  God  made  not  only  the  world  but 
the  book  besides,  it  does  not  follow  that  the  book  is 
the  best  part  of  Creation,  and  the  only  part  that  we 
will  be  eternally  punished  for  denying.  It  seems  to 
me  that  it  is  quite  as  important  to  know  something 


86  SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES. 

of  the  solar  system,  something  of  the  physical  history 
of  this  globe,  as  it  is  to  know  the  adventures  of 
Jonah  or  the  diet  of  Ezekiel.  For  my  part,  I  would 
infinitely  prefer  to  know  all  the  results  of  scientific 
investigation,  than  to  be  inspired  as  Moses  was. 
Supposing  the  bible  to  be  true  ;  why  is  it  any  worse 
or  more  wicked  for  free-thinkers  to  deny  it,  than  for 
priests  to  deny  the  doctrine  of  Evolution,  or  the 
dynamic  theory  of  heat  ?  Why  should  we  be  damned 
for  laughing  at  Samson  and  his  foxes,  while  others, 
holding  the  Nebular  Hypothesis  in  utter  contempt, 
go  straight  to  heaven  ?  It  seems  to  me  that  a  belief 
in  the  great  truths  of  science  are  fully  as  essential  to 
salvation,  as  the  creed  of  any  church.  We  are 
taught  that  a  man  may  be  perfectly  acceptable  to 
God  even  if  he  denies  the  rotundity  of  the  earth,  the 
Copernican  system,  the  three  laws  of  Kepler,  the 
indestructibility  of  matter  and  the  attraction  of 
gravitation.  And  we  are  also  taught  that  a  man 
may  be  right  upon  all  these  questions,  and  yet,  for 
failing  to  believe  in  the  "  scheme  of  salvation,"  be 
eternally  lost. 


XII. 
SATURDAY. 

On  this,  the  last  day  of  creation,  God  said : — 
"  Let  the  earth  bring  forth  the  living  creature 
after  his  kind,  cattle  and  creeping  thing  and  beast  of 
the  earth  after  his  kind ;  and  it  was  so.  And  God 
made  the  beast  of  the  earth  after  his  kind,  and  cattle 
after  their  kind,  and  every  thing  that  creepeth  upon 
the  earth  after  his  kind ;  and  God  saw  that  it  was 
good." 

Now,  is  it  true  that  the  seas  were  filled  with  fish, 
the  sky  with  fowls,  and  the  earth  covered  with  grass, 
and  herbs,  and  fruit  bearing  trees,  millions  of  ages 
before  there  was  a  creeping  thing  in  existence  ? 
Must  we  admit  that  plants  and  animals  were  the 
result  of  the  fiat  of  some  incomprehensible  intelligence 
independent  of  the  operation  of  what  are  known  as 
natural  causes  ?  Why  is  a  miracle  any  more 
necessary  to  account  for  yesterday  than  for  to-day 
or  for  to-morrow  ? 


SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES. 


If  there  is  an  infinite  Power,  nothing  can  be  more 
certain  than  that  this  Power  works  in  accordance  with 
what  we  call  law,  that  is,  by  and  through  natural 
causes.  If  anything  can  be  found  without  a  pedigree 
of  natural  antecedents,  it  will  then  be  time  enough  to 
talk  about  the  fiat  of  creation.  There  must  have 
been  a  time  when  plants  and  animals  did  not  exist 
upon  this  globe.  The  question,  and  the  only  question 
is,  whether  they  were  naturally  produced.  If  the 
account  given  by  Moses  is  true,  then  the  vegetable 
and  animal  existences  are  the  result  of  certain  special 
fiats  of  creation  entirely  independent  of  the  operation 
of  natural  causes.  This  is  so  grossly  improbable,  so  at 
variance  with  the  experience  and  observation  of  man- 
kind, that  it  cannot  be  adopted  without  abandoning 
forever  the  basis  of  scientific  thought  and  action. 

It  may  be  urged  that  we  do  not  understand  the 
sacred  record  correctly.  To  this  it  may  be  replied 
that  for  thousands  of  years  the  account  of  the  creation 
has,  by  the  Jewish  and  Christian  world,  been  regarded 
as  literally  true.  If  it  was  inspired,  of  course  God 
must  have  known  just  how  it  would  be  understood, 
and  consequently  must  have  intended  that  it  should 
be  understood  just  as  he  knew  it  would  be.  One 
man  writing  to  another,  may  mean  one  thing,  and 


SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES.  89 

yet  be  understood  as  meaning  something  else. 
Now,  if  the  writer  knew  that  he  would  be  misunder- 
stood, and  also  knew  that  he  could  use  other  words 
that  would  convey  his  real  meaning,  but  did  not,  we 
would  say  that  he  used  words  on  purpose  to  mislead, 
and  was  not  an  honest  man. 

If  a  being  of  infinite  wisdom  wrote  the  bible,  or 
caused  it  to  be  written,  he  must  have  known  exactly 
how  his  words  would  be  interpreted  by  all  the  world, 
and  he  must  have  intended  to  convey  the  very 
meaning  that  was  conveyed.  He  must  have  known 
that  by  reading  that  book,  man  would  form  erroneous 
views  as  to  the  shape,  antiquity,  and  size  of  this 
world ;  that  he  would  be  misled  as  to  the  time  and 
order  of  creation ;  that  he  would  have  the  most 
childish  and  contemptible  views  of  the  creator ;  that 
the  "sacred  word"  would  be  used  to  support  slavery 
and  polygamy ;  that  it  would  build  dungeons  for  the 
good,  and  light  fagots  to  consume  the  brave,  and 
therefore  he  must  have  intended  that  these  results 
should  follow.  He  also  must  have  known  that 
thousands  and  millions  of  men  and  women  never 
could  believe  his  bible,  and  that  the  number  of  unbe- 
lievers would  increase  in  the  exact  ratio  of  civilization, 
and  therefore,  he  must  have  intended  that  result. 


90  SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES. 

Let  us  understand  this.  An  honest  finite  being 
uses  the  best  words,  in  his  judgment,  to  convey  his 
meaning.  This  is  the  best  he  can  do,  because  he 
cannot  certainly  know  the  exact  effect  of  his  words 
on  others.  But  an  infinite  being  must  know  not  only 
the  real  meaning  of  the  words,  but  the  exact  meaning 
they  will  convey  to  every  reader  and  hearer.  He 
must  know  every  meaning  that  they  are  capable  of 
conveying  to  every  mind.  He  must  also  know  what 
explanations  must  be  made  to  prevent  misconception. 
If  an  infinite  being  cannot,  in  making  a  revelation  to 
man,  use  such  words  that  every  person  to  whom  a 
revelation  is  essential  will  understand  distinctly  what 
that  revelation  is,  then  a  revelation  from  God  through 
the  instrumentality  of  language  is  impossible,  or  it  is 
not  essential  that  all  should  understand  it  correctly. 
It  may  be  urged  that  millions  have  not  the  capacity 
to  understand  a  revelation,  although  expressed  in  the 
plainest  words.  To  this  it  seems  a  sufficient  reply 
to  ask,  why  a  being  of  infinite  power  should  create 
men  so  devoid  of  intelligence,  that  he  cannot  by  any 
means  make  known  to  them  his  will  ?  We  are  told 
that  it  is  exceedingly  plain,  and  that  a  wayfaring 
man,  though  a  fool,  need  not  err  therein.  This 
statement  is  refuted  by  the  religious  history  of  the 


SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES.  §1 

christian  world.  Every  sect  is  a  certificate  that  God 
has  not  plainly  revealed  his  will  to  man.  To  each 
reader  the  bible  conveys  a  different  meaning.  About 
the  meaning  of  this  booK,  called  a  revelation,  there 
have  been  a^es  of  war,  and  centuries  of  sword  and 
flame.  If  written  by  an  infinite  God,  he  must  have 
known  that  these  results  must  follow ;  and  thus 
knowing,  he  must  be  responsible  for  all. 

Is  it  not  infinitely  more  reasonable  to  say  that 
this  book  is  the  work  of  man,  that  it  is  filled  with 
mingled  truth  and  error,  with  mistakes  and  facts,  and 
reflects,  too  faithfully  perhaps,  the  "very  form  and 
pressure  of  its  time  ? " 

If  there  are  mistakes  in  the  bible,  certainly  they 
were  made  by  man.  If  there  is  anything  contrary  to 
nature,  it  was  written  by  man.  If  there  is  anything 
immoral,  cruel,  heartless  or  infamous,  it  certainly  was 
never  written  by  a  being  worthy  of  the  adoration 
of  mankind. 


XIII. 

LET  US  MAKE  MAN.* 

We  are  next  informed  by  the  author  of  the 
Pentateuch  that  God  said  "  Let  us  make 
man  in  our  image,  after  our  likeness,"  and  that 
"  God  created  man  in  his  own  image,  in  the  image 
of  God  created  he  him — male  and  female  created  he 
them." 

If  this  account  means  anything,  it  means  that 
man  was  created  in  the  physical  image  and  likeness 
of  God.  Moses  while  he  speaks  of  man  as  having 
been  made  in  the  image  of  God,  never  speaks  of 
God  except  as  having  the  form  of  a  man.  He 
speaks  of  God  as  "  walking  in  the  garden  in  the  cool 
of  the  day  ;  "  and  that  Adam  and  Eve  "  heard  his 
voice."  He  is  constantly  telling  what  God  said,  and 
in  a  thousand  passages  he  refers  to  him  as  not  only 
having  the  human  form,  but  as  performing  actions, 
such  as  man  performs.  The  God  of  Moses  was  a 
God  with  hands,  with  feet,  with  the  organs  of  speech. 


SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES.  93 

A  God  of  passion,  of  hatred,  of  revenge,  of  affection, 
of  repentance  ;  a  God  who  made  mistakes  :  —  in 
other  words,  an  immense  and  powerful  man. 

It  will  not  do  to  say  that  Moses  meant  to  convey 
the  idea  that  God  made  man  in  his  mental  or  moral 
image.  Some  have  insisted  that  man  was  made  in 
the  moral  image  of  God  because  he  was  made  pure. 
Purity  cannot  be  manufactured.  A  moral  character 
cannot  be  made  for  man  by  a  god.  Every  man 
must  make  his  own  moral  character.  Consequently, 
if  God  is  infinitely  pure,  Adam  and  Eve  were  not 
made  in  his  image  in  that  respect.  Others  say  that 
Adam  and  Eve  were  made  in  the  mental  image  of 
God.  If  it  is  meant  by  that,  that  they  were  created 
with  reasoning  powers  like,  but  not  to  the  extent  of 
those  possessed  by  a  god,  then  this  may  be  admitted. 
But  certainly  this  idea  was  not  in  the  mind  of  Moses. 
He  regarded  the  human  form  as  being  in  the  image 
of  God,  and  for  that  reason  always  spoke  of  God  as 
having-  that  form.  No  one  can  read  the  Pentateuch 
without  coming  to  the  conclusion  that  the  author 
supposed  that  man  was  created  in  the  physical  like- 
ness of  Deity.  God  said  "  Go  to,  let  us  go  down." 
"  God  smelled  a  sweet  savor  ;  "  "  God  repented  him 
that    he    had  made   man  ;  "  "  and   God  said  ;  "  and 


94  SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES. 


"  walked  ;  "  and  "  talked  ;  "  and  "  rested."  All  these 
expressions  are  inconsistent  with  any  other  idea  than 
that  the  person  using  them  regarded  God  as  having 
the  form  of  man. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  it  is  impossible  for  a  man  to 
conceive  of  a  personal  God,  other  than  as  a  being 
having  the  human  form.  No  one  can  think  of  an 
infinite  being  having  the  form  of  a  horse,  or  of  a 
bird,  or  of  any  animal  beneath  man.  It  is  one  of 
the  necessities  of  the  mind  to  associate  forms  with 
intellectual  capacities.  The  highest  form  of  which 
we  have  any  conception  is  man's,  and  consequently, 
his  is  the  only  form  that  we  can  find  in  imagination 
to  give  to  a  personal  God,  because  all  other  forms 
are,  in  our  minds,  connected  with  lower  intelligences. 

It  is  impossible  to  think  of  a  personal  God  as  a 
spirit  without  form.  We  can  use  these  words,  but 
they  do  not  convey  to  the  mind  any  real  and 
tangible  meaning.  Every  one  who  thinks  of  a 
personal  God  at  all,  thinks  of  him  as  having  the 
human  form.  Take  from  God  the  idea  of  form  ; 
speak  of  him  simply  as  an  all  pervading  spirit — 
which  means  an  all  pervading  something  about 
which  we  know  nothing — and  Pantheism  is  the 
result. 


SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES.  95 

We  are  told  that  God  made  man  ;  and  the 
question  naturally  arises,  how  was  this  done  ?  Was 
it  by  a  process  of  "evolution,"  "development;" 
the  "  transmission  of  acquired  habits  ;  "  the  "  sur- 
vival of  the  fittest,"  or  was  the  necessary  amount  of 
clay  kneaded  to  the  proper  consistency,  and  then 
by  the  hands  of  God  moulded  into  form  ?  Modern 
science  tells  that  man  has  been  evolved,  through 
countless  epochs,  from  the  lower  forms  ;  that  he  is 
the  result  of  almost  an  infinite  number  of  actions, 
reactions,  experiences,  states,  forms,  wants  and  adap- 
tations. Did  Moses  intend  to  convey  such  a  mean- 
ing, or  did  he  believe  that  God  took  a  sufficient 
amount  of  dust,  made  it  the  proper  shape,  and 
breathed  into  it  the  breath  of  life  ?  Can  any 
believer  in  the  bible  give  any  reasonable  account  of 
this  process  of  creation  ?  Is  it  possible  to  imagine 
what  was  really  done  ?  Is  there  any  theologian 
who  will  contend  that  man  was  created  directly  from 
the  earth  ?  Will  he  say  that  man  was  made  sub- 
stantially as  he  now  is,  with  all  his  muscles  properly 
developed  for  walking  and  speaking,  and  performing 
every  variety  of  human  action  ?  That  all  his  bones 
were  formed  as  they  now  are,  and  all  the  relations  of 
nerve,  ligament,  brain  and  motion  as  they  are  to-day  ? 


96  SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES. 

Looking  back  over  the  history  of  animal  life  from 
the  lowest  to  the  highest  forms,  we  find  that  there 
has  been  a  slow  and  gradual  development ;  a  certain 
but  constant  relation  between  want  and  production ; 
between  use  and  form.  The  Moner  is  said  to  be  the 
simplest  form  of  animal  life  that  has  yet  been  found. 
It  has  been  described  as  "  an  organism  without 
organs."  It  is  a  kind  of  structureless  structure ;  a 
little  mass  of  transparent  jelly  that  can  flatten  itself 
out,  and  can  expand  and  contract  around  its  food. 
It  can  feed  without  a  mouth,  digest  without  a  stomach, 
walk  without  feet,  and  reproduce  itself  by  simple 
division.  By  taking  this  Moner  as  the  commence- 
ment of  animal  life,  or  rather  as  the  first  animal,  it  is 
easy  to  follow  the  development  of  the  organic 
structure  through  all  the  forms  of  life  to  man  himself. 
In  this  way  finally  every  muscle,  bone  and  joint, 
every  organ,  form  and  function  may  be  accounted  for. 
In  this  way,  and  in  this  way  only,  can  the  existence 
of  rudimentary  organs  be  explained.  Blot  from  the 
human  mind  the  ideas  of  evolution,  heredity,  adapta- 
tion, and  "the  survival  of  the  fittest,"  with  which  it  has 
been  enriched  by  Lamarck,  Goethe,  Darwin,  Hceckel 
and  Spencer,  and  all  the  facts  in  the  history  of  animal 
life  become  utterly  disconnected   and  meaningless. 


SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES.  97 

Shall  we  throw  away  all  that  has  been  dis- 
covered with  regard  to  organic  life,  and  in  its 
place  take  the  statements  of  one  who  lived  in  the 
rude  morning  of  a  barbaric  day  ?  Will  anybody  now 
contend  that  man  was  a  direct  and  independent 
creation,  and  sustains  and  bears  no  relation  to  the 
animals  below  him  ?  Belief  upon  this  subject  must 
be  governed  at  last  by  evidence.  Man  cannot 
believe  as  he  pleases.  He  can  control  his  speech, 
and  can  say  that  he  believes  or  disbelieves  ;  but  after 
all,  his  will  cannot  depress  or  raise  the  scales  with 
which  his  reason  finds  the  worth  and  weight  of  facts. 
If  this  is  not  so,  investigation,  evidence,  judgment 
and  reason  are  but  empty  words. 

I  ask  again,  how  were  Adam  and  Eve  created  ? 
In  one  account  they  are  created  male  and  female, 
and  apparently  at  the  same  time.  In  the  next 
account,  Adam  is  made  first,  and  Eve  a  long  time 
afterwards,  and  from  a  part  of  the  man.  Did  God 
simply  by  his  creative  fiat  cause  a  rib  slowly  to 
expand,  grow  and  divide  into  nerve,  ligament,  car- 
tilage and  flesh  ?  How  was  the  woman  created 
from  a  rib  ?  How  was  man  created  simply  from 
dust  ?  For  my  part,  I  cannot  believe  this  statement. 
I  may  suffer  for  this  in  the  world  to  come  ;  and  may, 

7 


98  SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES. 

millions  of  years  hence,  sincerely  wish  that  I  had 
never  investigated  the  subject,  but  had  been  content 
to  take  the  ideas  of  the  dead.  I  do  not  believe  that 
any  Deity  works  in  that  way.  So  far  as  my  experience 
goes,  there  is  an  unbroken  procession  of  cause  and 
effect.  Each  thing  is  a  necessary  link  in  an  infinite 
chain  ;  and  I  cannot  conceive  of  this  chain  being 
broken  even  for  one  instant.  Back  of  the  simplest 
moner  there  is  a  cause,  and  back  of  that  another,  and 
so  on,  it  seems  to  me,  forever.  In  my  philosophy  I 
postulate  neither  beginning  nor  ending. 

If  the  Mosaic  account  is  true,  we  know  how  long 
man  has  been  uppn  this  earth.  If  that  account  can 
be  relied  on,  the  first  man  was  made  about  five 
thousand  eight  hundred  and  eighty-three  years  ago. 
Sixteen  hundred  and  fifty-six  years  after  the  making 
of  the  first  man,  the  inhabitants  of  the  world,  with 
the  exception  of  eight  people,  were  destroyed  by  a 
flood.  This  flood  occurred  only  about  four  thousand 
two  hundred  and  twenty-seven  years  ago.  If  this  ac- 
count is  correct,  at  that  time,  only  one  kind  of  men 
existed.  Noah  and  his  family  were  certainly  of  the 
same  blood.  It  therefore  follows  that  all  the  differences 
we  see  between  the  various  races  of  men  have  been 
caused    in    about    four    thousand    years,       If    the 


SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES.  99 

account  of  the  deluge  is  true,  then  since  that  event 
all  the  ancient  kingdoms  of  the  earth  were  founded, 
and  their  inhabitants  passed  through  all  the  stages 
of  savage,  nomadic,  barbaric  and  semi-civilized  life  ; 
through  the  epochs  of  Stone,  Bronze  and  Iron  ; 
established  commerce,  cultivated  the  arts,  built 
cities,  filled  them  with  palaces  and  temples,  invented 
writing,  produced  a  literature  and  slowly  fell  to 
shapeless  ruin.  We  must  believe  that  all  this  has 
happened  within  a  period  of  four  thousand  years. 

From  representations  found  upon  Egyptian 
granite  made  more  than  three  thousand  years  ago,  we 
know  that  the  negro  was  as  black,  his  lips  as  full,  and 
his  hair  as  closely  curled  then  as  now.  If  we  know 
anything,  we  know  that  there  was  at  that  time  sub- 
stantially the  same  difference  between  the  Egyptian 
and  the  Negro  as  now.  If  we  know  anything,  we 
know  that  magnificent  statues  were  made  in  Egypt 
four  thousand  years  before  our  era— that  is  to  say, 
about  six  thousand  years  ago.  There  was  at  the 
World's  Exposition,  in  the  Egyptian  department,  a 
statue  of  king  Cephren,  known  to  have  been 
chiseled  more  than  six  thousand  years  ago.  In 
other  words,  if  the  Mosaic  account  must  be  believed, 
this   statue  was   made  before   the   world.     We   also 


IOO  SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES. 

know,  if  we  know  anything,  that  men  lived  in 
Europe  with  the  hairy  mammoth,  the  cave  bear,  the 
rhinoceros,  and  the  hyena.  Among  the  bones  of 
these  animals  have  been  found  the  stone  hatchets 
and  flint  arrows  of  our  ancestors.  In  the  caves 
where  they  lived  have  been  discovered  the  remains 
of  these  animals  that  had  been  conquered,  killed  and 
devoured  .as  food,  hundreds  of  thousands  of  years 
ago. 

If  these  facts  are  true,  Moses  was  mistaken. 
For  my  part,  I  have  infinitely  more  confidence  in  the 
discoveries  of  to-day,  than  in  the  records  of  a  bar- 
barous people.  It  will  not  now  do  to  say  that  man 
has  existed  upon  this  earth  for  only  about  six  thou- 
sand years.  One  can  hardly  compute  in  his  imag- 
ination the  time  necessary  for  man  to  emerge  from 
the  barbarous  state,  naked  and  helpless,  surrounded 
by  animals  far  more  powerful  than  he,  to  progress 
and  finally  create  the  civilizations  of  India,  Egypt  and 
Athens.  The  distance  from  savagery  to  Shake- 
speare must  be  measured  not  by  hundreds,  but  by 
millions  of  years. 


XIV. 

SUNDAY. 

w  7T  nd  on  the  seventh  day  God  ended  his  work 
_£\_  which  he  had  made,  and  he  rested  on  the 
seventh  day  from  all  his  work  which  he  had  made. 
And  God  blessed  the  seventh  day  and  sanctified  it; 
because  that  in  it  he  had  rested  from  all  his  work 
which  God  created  and  made." 

The  great  work  had  been  accomplished,  the  world, 
the  sun,  and  moon,  and  all  the  hosts  of  heaven  were 
finished ;  the  earth  was  clothed  in  green,  the  seas 
were  filled  with  life,  the  cattle  wandered  by  the 
brooks — insects  with  painted  wings  were  in  the  happy 
air,  Adam  and  Eve  were  making  each  other's 
acquaintance,  and  God  was  resting  from  his  work. 
He  was  contemplating  the  accomplishments  of  a 
week. 

Because  he  rested  on  that  day  he  sanctified  it, 
and  for  that  reason  and  for  that  alone,  it  was  by  the 
Jews  considered  a  holy  day.      If  he  only  rested  on 


102  SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES. 

that  day,  there  ought  to  be  some  account  of  what  he 
did  the  following  Monday.  Did  he  rest  on  that  day  ? 
What  did  he  do  after  he  got  rested  ?  Has  he  done 
anything  in  the  way  of  creation  since  Saturday 
evening  of  the  first  week  ? 

It  is  now  claimed  by  the  "scientific"  christians 
that  the  "days"  of  creation  were  not  ordinary  days 
of  twenty-four  hours  each,  but  immensely  long 
periods  of  time.  If  they  are  right,  then  how  long 
was  the  seventh  day  ?  Was  that,  too,  a  geologic 
period  covering  thousands  of  ages  ?  That  cannot 
be,  because  Adam  and  Eve  were  created  the  Saturday 
evening  before,  and  according  to  the  bible  that  was 
about  five  thousand  eight  hundred  and  eighty-three 
years  ago.  I  cannot  state  the  time  exactly,  because 
there  have  been  as  many  as  one  hundred  and  forty 
different  opinions  given  by  learned  biblical  students 
as  to  the  time  between  the  creation  of  the  world  and 
the  birth  of  Christ.  We  are  quite  certain,  however, 
that,  according  to  the  bible,  it  is  not  more  than  six 
thousand  years  since  the  creation  of  Adam.  From 
this  it  would  appear  that  the  seventh  day  was  not  a 
geologic  epoch,  but  was  in  fact  a  period  of  less  than 
six  thousand  years,  and  probably  of  only  twenty-four 
hours. 


SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES.  IO3 

The  theologians  who  "  answer  "  these  things  may 
take  their  choice.  If  they  take  the  ground  that  the 
"  days "  were  periods  of  twenty-four  hours,  then 
geology  will  force  them  to  throw  away  the  whole 
account.  If,  on  the  other  hand,  they  admit  that  the 
days  were  vast  "periods,"  then  the  sacredness  of  the 
sabbath  must  be  given  up. 

There  is  found  in  the  bible  no  intimation  that 
there  was  the  least  difference  in  the  days.  They  are 
all  spoken  of  in  the  same  way.  It  may  be  replied 
that  our  translation  is  incorrect.  If  this  is  so,  then 
only  those  who  understand  Hebrew,  have  had  a 
revelation  from  God,  and  all  the  rest  have  been 
deceived. 

How  is  it  possible  to  sanctify  a  space  of  time  ? 
Is  rest  holier  than  labor  ?  If  there  is  any  difference 
between  days,  ought  not  that  to  be  considered  best 
in  which  the  most  useful  labor  has  been  performed  ? 

Of  all  the  superstitions  of  mankind,  this  insanity 
about  the  "  sacred  sabbath  "  is  the  most  absurd.  The 
idea  of  feeling  it  a  duty  to  be  solemn  and  sad  one- 
seventh  of  the  time !  To  think  that  we  can  please 
an  infinite  being  by  staying  in  some  dark  and  sombre 
room,  instead  of  walking  in  the  perfumed  fields ! 
Why  should  God  hate  to  see  a  man  happy  ?     Why 


104  SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES. 

should  it  excite  his  wrath  to  see  a  family  in  the 
woods,  by  some  babbling  stream,  talking,  laughing 
and  loving?  Nature  works  on  that  "sacred"  day. 
The  earth  turns,  the  rivers  run,  the  trees  grow,  buds 
burst  into  flower,  and  birds  fill  the  air  with  song. 
Why  should  we  look  sad,  and  think  about  death,  and 
hear  about  hell  ?  Why  should  that  day  be  filled  with 
gloom  instead  of  joy? 

A  poor  mechanic,  working  all  the  week  in  dust 
and  noise,  needs  a  day  of  rest  and  joy,  a  day  to  visit 
stream  and  wood — a  day  to  live  with  wife  and  child ; 
a  day  in  which  to  laugh  at  care,  and  gather  hope  and 
strength  for  toils  to  come.  And  his  weary  wife  needs 
a  breath  of  sunny  air,  away  from  street  and  wall, 
amid  the  hills  or  by  the  margin  of  the  sea,  where  she 
can  sit  and  prattle  with  her  babe,  and  fill  with  happy 
dreams  the  long,  glad  day. 

The  "sabbath"  was  born  of  asceticism,  hatred 
of  human  joy,  fanaticism,  ignorance,  egotism  of 
priests  and  the  cowardice  of  the  people.  This  day, 
for  thousands  of  years,  has  been  dedicated  to  super- 
stition, to  tt"^  dissemination  of  mistakes,  and  the 
establishment  of  falsehoods.  Every  Freethinker, 
as  a  matter  of  duty,  should  violate  this  day.  He 
should  assert  his  independence,  and  do  all  within  his 


SOMfi  mistakes  of  moses.  io5 


power  to  wrest  the  sabbath  from  the  gloomy  church 
and  give  it  back  to  liberty  and  joy.  Freethinkers 
should  make  the  sabbath  a  day  of  mirth  and  music ; 
a  day  to  spend  with  wife  and  child — a  day  of  games, 
and  books,  and  dreams  —  a  day  to  put  fresh  flowers 
above  our  sleeping  dead — a  day  of  memory  and  hope, 
of  love  and  rest. 

Why  should  we  in  this  age  of  the  world  be 
dominated  by  the  dead  ?  Why  should  barbarian 
Jews  who  went  down  to  death  and  dust  three 
thousand  years  ago,  control  the  living  world  ?  Why 
should  we  care  for  the  superstition  of  men  who  began 
the  sabbath  by  paring  their  nails,  "beginning  at  the 
fourth  finger,  then  going  to  the  second,  then  to  the 
fifth,  then  to  the  third,  and  ending  with  the  thumb  ? " 
How  pleasing  to  God  this  must  have  been.  The 
Jews  were  very  careful  of  these  nail  parings.  They 
who  threw  them  upon  the  ground  were  wicked, 
because  Satan  used  them  to  work  evil  upon  the 
earth.  They  believed  that  upon  the  Sabbath,  souls 
were  allowed  to  leave  purgatory  and  cool  their 
burning  souls  in  water.  Fires  were  neither  allowed 
to  be  kindled  nor  extinguished,  and  upon  that  day  it 
was  a  sin  to  bind  up  wounds.  "The  lame  might  use 
a  staff,  but  the  blind  could  not."     So  strict  was  the 


I06  SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES. 

sabbath  kept,  that  at  one  time  "  if  a  Jew  on  a  journey 
was  overtaken  by  the  'sacred  day'  in  a  wood,  or  on 
the  highway,  no  matter  where,  nor  under  what 
circumstances,  he  must  sit  down,"  and  there  remain 
until  the  day  was  gone.  "If  he  fell  down  in  the 
dirt,  there  he  was  compelled  to  stay  until  the  day 
was  done."  For  violating  the  sabbath,  the  punish- 
ment was  death,  for  nothing  short  of  the  offender's 
blood  could  satisfy  the  wrath  of  God.  There  are,  in 
the  Old  Testament,  two  reasons  given  for  abstaining 
from  labor  on  the  sabbath  : — the  resting  of  God,  and 
the  redemption  of  the  Jews  from  the  bondage  of 
Egypt. 

Since  the  establishment  of  the  Christian  religion, 
the  day  has  been  changed,  and  Christians  do  not 
regard  the  day  as  holy  upon  which  God  actually 
rested,  and  which  he  sanctified.  The  Christian 
Sabbath,  or  the  "  Lord's  day"  was  legally  established 
by  the  murderer  Constantine,  because  upon  that  day 
Christ  was  supposed  to  have  risen  from  the  dead. 

It  is  not  easy  to  see  where  Christians  got  the 
right  to  disregard  the  direct  command  of  God,  to 
labor  on  the  day  he  sanctified,  and  keep  as  sacred,  a 
day  upon  which  he  commanded  men  to  labor.  The 
labbath  of  God  is  Saturday,  and  if  any  day  is  to  be 


SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES.  IOJ 

kept  holy,  that   is  the   one,  and  not  the  Sunday  of 
the  Christian. 

Let  us  throw  away  these  superstitions  and  take 
the  higher,  nobler  ground,  that  every  day  should  be 
rendered  sacred  by  some  loving  act,  by  increasing 
the  happinesss  of  man,  giving  birth  to  noble  thoughts, 
putting  in  the  path  of  toil  some  flower  of  joy,  helping 
the  unfortunate,  lifting  the  fallen,  dispelling  gloom, 
destroying  prejudice,  defending  the  helpless  and 
filling  homes  with  light  and  love. 


XV. 
THE  NECESSITY  FOR  A  GOOD  MEMORY. 

It  must  not  be  forgotten  that  there  are  two  accounts 
of  the  creation  in  Genesis.  The  first  account 
stops  with  the  third  verse  of  the  second  chapter. 
The  chapters  have  been  improperly  divided.  In  the 
original  Hebrew  the  Pentateuch  was  neither  divided 
into  chapters  nor  verses.  There  was  not  even  any 
system  of  punctuation.  It  was  written  wholly  with 
consonants,  without  vowels,  and  without  any  marks, 
dots,  or  lines  to  indicate  them. 

These  accounts  are  materially  different,  and  both 
cannot  be  true.     Let  us  see  wherein  they  differ. 

The  second  account  of  the  creation  begins  with 
the  fourth  verse  of  the  second  chapter,  and  is  as 
follows  : 

"  These  are  the  generations  of  the  heavens 
and  of  the  earth  when  they  were  created,  in  the 
day  that  the  Lord  God  made  the  earth  and  the 
heavens. 


SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES.  IO9 

"  And  every  plant  of  the  field  before  it  was  in  the 
earth,  and  every  herb  of  the  field  before  it  grew  ;  for 
the  Lord  God  had  not  caused  it  to  rain  upon  the 
earth,  and  there  was  not  a  man  to  till  the  ground. 

"  But  there  went  up  a  mist  from  the  earth  and 
watered  the  whole  face  of  the  ground. 

"  And  the  Lord  God  formed  man  of  the  dust 
of  the  ground,  and  breathed  into  his  nostrils  the 
breath  of  life  ;  and  man  became  a  living  soul. 

"  And  the  Lord  God  planted  a  garden  eastward 
in  Eden  ;  and  there  he  put  the  man  whom  he  had 
formed. 

"  And  out  of  the  ground  made  the  Lord  God  to 
grow  every  tree  that  is  pleasant  to  the  sight,  and 
good  for  food  ;  the  tree  of  life  also  in  the  midst  of 
the  garden,  and  the  tree  of  knowledge  of  good  and 
evil. 

"  And  a  river  went  out  of  Eden  to  water  the 
garden  ;  and  from  thence  it  was  parted  and  became 
into  four  heads. 

"  The  name  of  the  first  is  Pison  ;  that  is  it  which 
compasseth  the  whole  land  of  Havilah,  where  there 
is  gold. 

"  And  the  gold  of  that  land  is  good  :  there  is 
bdellium  and  the  onyx  stone. 


IIO  SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES. 

"  And  the  name  of  the  second  river  is  Gihon  : 
the  same  is  it  that  compasseth  the  whole  land  of 
Ethiopia. 

"  And  the  name  of  the  third  river  is  Hiddekel ; 
that  is  it  which  goeth  toward  the  east  of  Assyria. 
And  the  fourth  river  is  Euphrates. 

"And  the  Lord  God  took  the  man,  and  put  him 
into  the  garden  of  Eden  to  dress  it  and  to  keep  it. 

"  And  the  Lord  God  commanded  the  man, 
saying,  Of  every  tree  of  the  garden  thou  mayest  freely 
eat ;  But  of  the  tree  of  the  knowledge  of  good  and 
evil,  thou  shalt  not  eat  of  it ;  for  in  the  day  that 
thou  eatest  thereof  thou  shalt  surely  die. 

"  And  the  Lord  God  said,  It  is  not  good  that  the 
man  should  be  alone  ;  I  will  make  him  an  helpmeet 
for  him. 

"  And  out  of  the  ground  the  Lord  God  formed 
every  beast  of  the  field,  and  every  fowl  of  the  air  ; 
and  brought  them  unto  Adam  to  see  what  he  would 
call  them  :  and  whatsoever  Adam  called  every  living 
creature,  that  was  the  name  thereof. 

"  And  Adam  gave  names  to  all  cattle,  and  to  the 
fowl  of  the  air,  and  to  every  beast  of  the  field  ;  but 
for  Adam  there  was  not  found  a  helpmeet  for 
him. 


SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES.  I  I  I 

"  And  the  Lord  God  caused  a  deep  sleep  to  fall 
upon  Adam,  and  he  slept  ;  and  he  took  one  of  his 
ribs,  and  closed  up  the  flesh  instead  thereof; 

"  And  the  rib,  which  the  Lord  God  had  taken  from 
man,  made  he  a  woman  and  brought  her  unto  the  man. 

"And  Adam  said,  This  is  now  bone  of  my  bones, 
and  flesh  of  my  flesh ;  she  shall  be  called  Woman, 
because  she  was  taken  out  of  man. 

"Therefore  shall  a  man  leave  his  father  and  his 
mother,  and  shall  cleave  unto  his  wife  ;  and  they 
shall  be  one  flesh. 

"  And  they  were  both  naked,  the  man  and  his 
wife,  and  were  not  ashamed." 

Order  of  creation  in  the  first  account  : 

i.  The  heaven  and  the  earth,  and  light  were 
made. 

2.  The  firmament  was  constructed  and  the 
waters  divided. 

3.  The  waters  gathered  into  seas — and  then 
came  dry  land,  grass,  herbs  and  fruit  trees. 

4.  The  sun  and  moon.     He  made  the  stars  also. 

5.  Fishes,  fowls,  and  great  whales. 

6.  Beasts,  cattle,  every  creeping  thing,  man  and 
woman. 


i  i  2  some  mistakes  of  moses. 

Order  of  creation  in  the  second  account  : 

i.     The  heavens  and  the  earth. 

2.  A  mist  went  up  from  the  earth,  and  watered 
the  whole  face  of  the  ground. 

3.  Created  a  man  out  of  dust,  by  the  name  of 
Adam. 

4.  Planted  a  garden  eastward  in  Eden,  and  put 
the  man  in  it. 

5.  Created  the  beasts  and  fowls. 

6.  Created  a  woman  out  of  one  of  the  man's 
ribs. 

In  the  second  account,  man  was  made  before  the 
beasts  and  fowls.  If  this  is  true,  the  first  account  is 
false.  And  if  the  theologians  of  our  time  are  correct 
in  their  view  that  the  Mosaic  day  means  thousands 
of  ages,  then,  according  to  the  second  account,  Adam 
existed  millions  of  years  before  Eve  was  formed. 
He  must  have  lived  one  Mosaic  day  before  there 
were  any  trees,  and  another  Mosaic  day  before  the 
beasts  and  fowls  were  created.  Will  some  kind 
clergymen  tell  us  upon  what  kind  of  food  Adam 
subsisted  during  these  immense  periods  ? 

In  the  second  account  a  man  is  made,  and  the 
fact  that  he  was  without  a  helpmeet  did  not  occur  to 


SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES.  I  1 3 

the  Lord  God  until  a  couple  "of  vast  periods"  after- 
wards. The  Lord  God  suddenly  coming  to  an 
appreciation  of  the  situation  said,  "  It  is  not  good  that 
the  man  should  be  alone.  I  will  make  him  a  help- 
meet for  him." 

Now,  after  concluding  to  make  "  an  helpmeet"  for 
Adam,  what  did  the  Lord  God  do  ?  Did  he  at  once 
proceed  to  make  a  woman  ?  No.  What  did  he  do  ? 
He  made  the  beasts,  and  tried  to  induce  Adam  to 
take  one  of  them  for  "an  helpmeet."  If  I  am 
incorrect,  read  the  following  account,  and  tell  me 
what  it  means  : 

"And  the  Lord  God  said,  It  is  not  good  that  the 
man  should  be  alone ;  I  will  make  him  an  helpmeet 
for  him. 

"And  out  of  the  ground  the  Lord  God 
formed  every  beast  of  the  field,  and  every  fowl 
of  the  air;  and  brought  them  unto  Adam  to  see 
what  he  would  call  them :  and  whatsoever  Adam 
called  every  living  creature,  that  was  the  name 
thereof. 

"And  Adam  gave  names  to  all  cattle,  and  to 
the  fowl  of  the  air,  and  to  every  beast  of  the  field ; 
but  for  Adam  there  was  not  found  an  helpmeet 
for  him." 

8 


114  SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES. 

Unless  the  Lord  God  was  looking  for  an  help- 
meet for  Adam,  why  did  he  cause  the  animals  to 
pass  before  him  ?  And  why  did  he,  after  the 
menagerie  had  passed  by,  pathetically  exclaim, 
"  But  for  Adam  there  was  not  found  an  helpmeet 
for  him  ?" 

It  seems  that  Adam  saw  nothing  that  struck  his 
fancy.  The  fairest  ape,  the  sprightliest  chimpanzee, 
the  loveliest  baboon,  the  most  bewitching  orang- 
outang, the  most  fascinating  gorilla  failed  to  touch 
with  love's  sweet  pain,  poor  Adam's  lonely  heart. 
Let  us  rejoice  that  this  was  so.  Had  he  fallen  in 
love  then,  there  never  would  have  been  a  Free- 
thinker in  this  world. 

Dr.  Adam  Clark,  speaking  of  this  remarkable 
proceeding  says: — "God  caused  the  animals  to  pass 
before  Adam  to  show  him  that  no  creature  yet  formed 
could  make  him  a  suitable  companion ;  that  Adam 
was  convinced  that  none  of  these  animals  could  be 
a  suitable  companion  for  him,  and  that  therefore 
he  must  continue  in  a  state  that  was  not  good 
(celibacy)  unless  he  became  a  further  debtor  to 
the  bounty  of  his  maker,  for  among  all  the  animals 
which  he  had  formed,  there  was  not  a  helpmeet 
for  Adam." 


SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES.  I  1 5 

Upon  this  same  subject,  Dr.  Scott  informs  us 
"that  it  was  not  conducive  to  the  happiness  of  the 
man  to  remain  without  the  consoling  society,  and 
endearment  of  tender  friendship,  nor  consistent  with 
the  end  of  his  creation  to  be  without  marriage  by 
which  the  earth  might  be  replenished  and  worshipers 
and  servants  raised  up  to  render  him  praise  and 
glory.  Adam  seems  to  have  been  vastly  better 
acquainted  by  intuition  or  revelation  with  the  distinct 
properties  of  every  creature  than  the  most  sagacious 
observer  since  the  fall  of  man. 

"  Upon  this  review  of  the  animals,  not  one  was 
found  in  outward  form  his  counterpart,  nor  one  suited 
to  engage  his  affections,  participate  in  his  enjoyments, 
or  associate  with  him  in  the  worship  of  God." 

Dr.  Matthew  Henry  admits  that  "God  brought 
all  the  animals  together  to  see  if  there  was  a  suitable 
match  for  Adam  in  any  of  the  numerous  families  of 
the  inferior  creatures,  but  there  was  none.  They 
were  all  looked  over,  but  Adam  could  not  be  matched 
among  them  all.  Therefore  God  created  a  new  thing 
to  be  a  helpmeet  for  him." 

Failing  to  satisfy  Adam  with  any  of  the  inferior 
animals,  the  Lord  God  caused  a  deep  sleep  to  fall 
upon  him,  and  while  in  this  sleep  took  out  one  of 


I  1 6  SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES. 

Adam's  ribs  and  "  closed  up  the  flesh  instead  thereof." 
And  out  of  this  rib,  the  Lord  God  made  a  woman, 
and  brought  her  to  the  man. 

Was  the  Lord  God  compelled  to  take  a  part  of 
the  man  because  he  had  used  up  all  the  original 
"nothing"  out  of  which  the  universe  was  made  ?  Is 
it  possible  for  any  sane  and  intelligent  man  to  believe 
this  story  ?  Must  a  man  be  born  a  second  time 
before  this  account  seems  reasonable  ? 

Imagine  the  Lord  God  with  a  bone  in  his  hand 
with  which  to  start  a  woman,  trying  to  make  up  his 
mind  whether  to  make  a  blonde  or  a  brunette ! 

Just  at  this  point  it  may  be  proper  for  me  to 
warn  all  persons  from  laughing  at  or  making  light  of, 
any  stories  found  in  the  "  Holy  Bible."  When  you 
come  to  die,  every  laugh  will  be  a  thorn  in  your 
pillow.  At  that  solemn  moment,  as  you  look  back 
upon  the  records  of  your  life,  no  matter  how  many 
men  you  may  have  wrecked  and  ruined  ;  no  matter 
how  many  women  you  have  deceived  and  deserted, 
all  that  can  be  forgiven  ;  but  if  you  remember  then 
that  you  have  laughed  at  even  one  story  in  God's 
"  sacred  book  "  you  will  see  through  the  gathering 
shadows  of  death  the  forked  tongues  of  devils,  and 
the  leering  eyes  of  fiends. 


SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES.  I  I J 

These  stories  must  be  believed,  or  the  work 
of  regeneration  can  never  be  commenced.  No 
matter  how  well  you  act  your  part,  live  as  honestly 
as  you  may,  clothe  the  naked,  feed  the  hungry, 
divide  your  last  farthing  with  the  poor,  and  you  are 
simply  traveling  the  broad  road  that  leads  inevitably 
to  eternal  death,  unless  at  the  same  time  you  im- 
plicitly believe  the  bible  to  be  the  inspired  word  of 
God. 

Let  me  show  you  the  result  of  unbelief.  Let  us 
suppose,  for  a  moment,  that  we  are  at  the  Day  of 
Judgment,  listening  to  the  trial  of  souls  as  they 
arrive.  The  Recording  Secretary,  or  whoever  does 
the  cross-examining,  says  to  a  soul  : 

Where  are  you  from  ? 

I  am  from  the  Earth. 

What  kind  of  a  man  were  you  ? 

Well,  I  don't  like  to  talk  about  myself.  I  sup- 
pose you  can  tell  by  looking  at  your  books. 

No  sir.  You  must  tell  what  kind  of  a  man  you 
were. 

Well,  I  was  what  you  might  call  a  first-rate 
fellow.  I  loved  my  wife  and  children.  My 
home  was  my  heaven.  My  fireside  was  a 
paradise   to    me.      To   sit  there  and  see  the  lights 


Il8  SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES. 

and  shadows  fall  upon  the  faces  of  those  I  loved, 
was  to  me  a  perfect  joy. 

How  did  you  treat  your  family  ? 

I  never  said  an  unkind  word.  I  never  caused 
my  wife,  nor  one  of  my  children,  a  moment's  pain. 

Did  you  pay  your  debts  ? 

I  did  not  owe  a  dollar  when  I  died,  and  left 
enough  to  pay  my  funeral  expenses,  and  to  keep  the 
fierce  wolf  of  want  from  the  door  of  those  I  loved. 

Did  you  belong  to  any  church  ? 

No  sir.  They  were  too  narrow,  pinched  and 
bigoted  for  me,  I  never  thought  that  I  could  be  very 
happy  if  other  folks  were  damned. 

Did  you  believe  in  eternal  punishment  ? 

Well,  no.  I  always  thought  that  God  could  get 
his  revenge  in  far  less  time. 

Did  you  believe  the  rib  story  ? 

Do  you  mean  the  Adam  and  Eve  business  ? 

Yes  !     Did  you  believe  that  ? 

To  tell  you  the  God's  truth,  that  was  just  a  little 
more  than  I  could  swallow. 

Away  with  him  to  hell ! 

Next! 

Where  are  you  from  ? 
I  am  from  the  world  too. 


SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES.  I  1 9 

Did  you  belong  to  any  church  ? 

Yes  sir,  and  to  the  Young-  Men's  Christian  As- 
sociation besides. 

What  was  your  business  ? 

Cashier  in  a  Savings  Bank. 

Did  you  ever  run  away  with  any  money  ? 

Where  I  came  from,  a  witness  could  not  be  com- 
pelled to  criminate  himself. 

The  law  is  different  here.  Answer  the  question. 
Did  you  run  away  with  any  money  ? 

Yes  sir. 

How  much  ? 

One  hundred  thousand  dollars. 

Did  you  take  anything  else  with  you  ? 

Yes  sir. 

Well,  what  else  ? 

I  took  my  neighbor's  wife — we  sang  together  in 
the  choir. 

Did  you  have  a  wife  and  children  of  your  own  ? 

Yes  sir. 

And  you  deserted  them  ? 

Yes  sir,  but  such  was  my  confidence  in  God  that 
I  believed  he  would  take  care  of  them. 

Have  you  heard  of  them  since  ? 

No  sir. 


120  SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES. 

Did  you  believe  in  the  rib  story  ? 

Bless  your  soul,  of  course  I  did.  A  thousand 
times  I  regretted  that  there  were  no  harder  stories 
in  the  bible,  so  that  I  could  have  shown  my  wealth 
of  faith. 

Do  you  believe  the  rib  story  yet  ? 

Yes,  with  all  my  heart. 

Give  him  a  harp  ! 

Well,  as  I  was  saying,  God  made  a  woman  from 
Adam's  rib.  Of  course,  I  do  not  know  exactly  how 
this  was  done,  but  when  he  got  the  woman  finished, 
he  presented  her  to  Adam.  He  liked  her,  and  they 
commenced  house-keeping  in  the  celebrated  garden 
of  Eden. 

Must  we,  in  order  to  be  good,  gentle  and  loving 
in  our  lives,  believe  that  the  creation  of  woman  was 
a  second  thought  ?  That  Jehovah  really  endeavored 
to  induce  Adam  to  take  one  of  the  lower  animals  as 
an  helpmeet  for  him  ?  After  all,  is  it  not  possible  to 
live  honest  and  courageous  lives  without  believing 
these  fables  ?  It  is  said  that  from  Mount  Sinai  God 
gave,  amid  thunderings  and  lightnings,  ten  command- 
ments for  the  guidance  of  mankind  ;  and  yet  among 
them  is  not  found — "  Thou  shalt  believe  the  Bible." 


XVI. 
THE   GARDEN. 

Tn  the  first  account  we  are  told  that  God  made 
man,  male  and  female,  and  said  to  them  "  Be 
fruitful,  and  multiply,  and  replenish  the  earth  and 
subdue  it." 

In  the  second  account  only  the  man  is  made,  and 
he  is  put  in  a  garden  "to  dress  it  and  to  keep  it." 
He  is  not  told  to  subdue  the  earth,  but  to  dress  and 
keep  a  garden. 

In  the  first  account  man  is  given  every  herb 
bearing  seed  upon  the  face  of  the  earth  and  the  fruit 
of  every  tree  for  food,  and  in  the  second,  he  is  given 
only  the  fruit  of  all  the  trees  in  the  garden  with  the 
exception  "of  the  tree  of  the  knowledge  of  good  and 
evil "  which  was  a  deadly  poison. 

There  was  issuing  from  this  garden  a  river  that 
was  parted  into  four  heads.  The  first  of  these,  Pison, 
compassed  the  whole  land  of  Havilah,  the  second, 
Gihon,  that  compassed  the  whole  land  of  Ethiopia, 


122  SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES. 

the  third,  Heddekel,  that  flowed  toward  the  east  of 
Assyria,  and  the  fourth,  the  Euphrates.  Where  are 
these  four  rivers  now  ?  The  brave  prow  of  discovery 
has  visited  every  sea ;  the  traveler  has  pressed  with 
weary  feet  the  soil  of  every  clime  ;  and  yet  there  has 
been  found  no  place  from  which  four  rivers  sprang. 
The  Euphrates  still  journeys  to  the  gulf,  but  where 
are  Pison,  Gihon  and  the  mighty  Heddekel  ?  Surely 
by  going  to  the  source  of  the  Euphrates  we  ought  to 
find  either  these  three  rivers  or  their  ancient  beds. 
Will  some  minister  when  he  answers  the  "  Mistakes 
of  Moses"  tell  us  where  these  rivers  are  or  were? 
The  maps  of  the  world  are  incomplete  without  these 
mighty  streams.  We  have  discovered  the  sources 
of  the  Nile  ;  the  North  Pole  will  soon  be  touched  by 
an  American  ;  but  these  three  rivers  still  rise  in 
unknown  hills,  still  flow  through  unknown  lands,  and 
empty  still  in  unknown  seas. 

The  account  of  these  four  rivers  is  what  the 
Rev.  David  Swing  would  call  "a  geographical 
poem."  The  orthodox  clergy  cover  the  whole 
affair  with  the  blanket  of  allegory,  while  the 
"scientific"  christian  folks  talk  about  cataclysms, 
upheavals,  earthquakes,  and  vast  displacements  of 
the   earth's  crust. 


SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES.  1 23 

The  question,  then  arises,  whether  within  the  last 
six  thousand  years  there  have  been  such  upheavals 
and  displacements  ?  Talk  as  you  will  about  the  vast 
"creative  periods"  that  preceded  the  appearance  of 
man ;  it  is,  according  to  the  bible,  only  about  six 
thousand  years  since  man  was  created.  Moses  gives 
us  the  generations  of  men  from  Adam  until  his  day, 
and  this  account  cannot  be  explained  away  by  calling 
centuries,  days. 

According  to  the  second  account  of  creation,  these 
four  rivers  were  made  after  the  creation  of  man,  and 
consequently  they  must  have  been  obliterated  by 
convulsions  of  Nature  within  six  thousand  years. 

Can  we  not  account  for  these  contradictions, 
absurdities,  and  falsehoods  by  simply  saying  that 
although  the  writer  may  have  done  his  level  best,  he 
failed  because  he  was  limited  in  knowledge,  led  away 
by  tradition,  and  depended  too  implicitly  upon  the 
correctness  of  his  imagination  ?  Is  not  such  a  course 
far  more  reasonable  than  to  insist  that  all  these  things 
are  true  and  must  stand  though  every  science  shall 
fall  to  mental  dust  ? 

Can  any  reason  be  given  for  not  allowing  man  to 
eat  of  the  fruit  of  the  tree  of  knowledge  ?  What 
kind  of  tree  was  that  ?      If  it  is  all  an  allegory,  what 


124  SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES. 

truth  is  sought  to  be  conveyed  ?  Why  should  God 
object  to  that  fruit  being  eaten  by  man  ?  Why  did 
he  put  it  in  the  midst  of  the  garden  ?  There  was 
certainly  plenty  of  room  outside.  If  he  wished  to 
keep  man  and  this  tree  apart,  why  did  he  put  them 
together?  And  why,  after  he  had  eaten,  was  he 
thrust  out  ?  The  only  answer  that  we  have  a  right 
to  give,  is  the  one  given  in  the  bible.  "And  the 
Lord  God  said,  Behold  the  man  has  become  as  one 
of  us  to  know  good  and  evil ;  and  now,  lest  he  put 
forth  his  hand  and  take  also  of  the  tree  of  life,  and 
eat,  and  live  forever :  Therefore  the  Lord  God  sent 
him  forth  from  the  garden  of  Eden,  to  till  the  ground 
from  whence  he  was  taken." 

Will  some  minister,  some  graduate  of  Andover, 
tell  us  what  this  means  ?  Are  we  bound  to  believe 
it  without  knowing  what  the  meaning  is?  If  it  is  a 
revelation,  what  does  it  reveal  ?  Did  God  object  to 
education  then,  and  does  that  account  for  the  hostile 
attitude  still  assumed  by  theologians  towards  all 
scientific  truth  ?  Was  there  in  the  garden  a  tree  of 
life,  the  eating  of  which  would  have  rendered  Adam 
and  Eve  immortal  ?  Is  it  true,  that  after  the  Lord 
God  drove  them  from  the  garden  that  he  placed 
upon   its  Eastern    side  "  Cherubim    and    a    flaming 


SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES.  125 

sword  which  turned  every  way  to  keep  the  way  of 
the  tree  of  life  ? "  Are  the  Cherubims  and  the 
flaming-  sword  guarding-  that  tree  yet,  or  was  it 
destroyed,  or  did  its  rotting  trunk,  as  the  Rev. 
Robert  Collyer  suggests  "  nourish  a  bank  of 
violets  ?  " 

What  objection  could  God  have  had  to  the 
immortality  of  man  ?  You  see  that  after  all,  this 
sacred  record,  instead  of  assuring  us  of  immortality, 
shows  us  only  how  we  lost  it.  In  this  there  is 
assuredly  but  little  consolation. 

According  to  this  story  we  have  lost  one  Eden, 
but  nowhere  in  the  Mosaic  books  are  we  told  how 
we  may  gain  another.  I  know  that  the  Christians 
tell  us  there  is  another,  in  which  all  true  believers 
will  finally  be  gathered,  and  enjoy  the  unspeakable 
happiness  of  seeing  the  unbelievers  in  hell ;  but  they 
do  not  tell  us  where  it  is. 

Some  commentators  say  that  the  Garden  of 
Eden  was  in  the  third  heaven — some  in  the  fourth, 
others  have  located  it  in  the  moon,  some  in  the  air 
beyond  the  attraction  of  the  earth,  some  on  the 
Earth,  some  under  the  Earth,  some  inside  the  Earth, 
some  at  the  North  Pole,  others  at  the  South,  some 
in  Tartary,  some   in  China,  some  on  the  borders  of 


126  SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES. 

the  Ganges,  some  in  the  island  of  Ceylon,  some  in 
Armenia,  some  in  Africa,  some  under  the  Equator, 
others  in  Mesopotamia,  in  Syria,  Persia,  Arabia, 
Babylon,  Assyria,  Palestine  and  Europe.  Others 
have  contended  that  it  was  invisible,  that  it  was  an 
allegory,  and  must  be  spiritually  understood. 

But  whether  you  understand  these  things  or  not, 
you  must  believe  them.  You  may  be  laughed  at  in 
this  world  for  insisting  that  God  put  Adam  into  a 
deep  sleep  and  made  a  woman  out  of  one  of  his  ribs, 
but  you  will  be  crowned  and  glorified  in  the  next. 
You  will  also  have  the  pleasure  of  hearing  the 
gentlemen  howl  there,  who  laughed  at  you  here. 
While  you  will  not  be  permitted  to  take  any  revenge, 
you  will  be  allowed  to  smilingly  express  your  entire 
acquiescence  in  the  will  of  God.  But  where  is  the 
new  Eden  ?  No  one  knows.  The  one  was  lost,  and 
the  other  has  not  been  found. 

Is  it  true  that  man  was  once  perfectly  pure  and 
innocent,  and  that  he  became  degenerate  by  disobe- 
dience ?  No.  The  real  truth  is,  and  the  history  of 
man  shows,  that  he  has  advanced.  Events,  like  the 
pendulum  of  a  clock  have  swung  forward  and  back 
ward,  but  after  all,  man,  like  the  hands,  has  orone 
steadily  on.     Man   is  growing  grander.      He  is  not 


SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES.  127 

degenerating.  Nations  and  individuals  fail  and  die, 
and  make  room  for  higher  forms.  The  intellectual 
horizon  of  the  world  widens  as  the  centuries  pass. 
Ideals  grow  grander  and  purer  ;  the  difference 
between  justice  and  mercy  becomes  less  and  less  ; 
liberty  enlarges,  and  love  intensifies  as  the  years 
sweep  on.  The  ages  of  force  and  fear,  of  cruelty 
and  wrong,  are  behind  us  and  the  real  Eden  is 
beyond.  It  is  said  that  a  desire  for  knowledge  lost 
us  the  Eden  of  the  past  ;  but  whether  that  is  true  or 
not,  it  will  certainly  give  us  the  Eden  of  the  future. 


XVII. 
THE   FALL. 

We  are  told  that  the  serpent  was  more  subtle 
than  any  beast  of  the  field,  that  he  had  a 
conversation  with  Eve,  in  which  he  gave  his  opinion 
about  the  effect  of  eating  certain  fruit;  that  he 
assured  her  it  was  good  to  eat,  that  it  was  pleasant 
to  the  eye,  that  it  would  make  her  wise ;  that  she 
was  induced  to  take  some ;  that  she  persuaded  her 
husband  to  try  it ;  that  God  found  it  out,  that  he  then 
cursed  the  snake ;  condemning  it  to  crawl  and  eat 
the  dust ;  that  he  multiplied  the  sorrows  of  Eve, 
cursed  the  ground  for  Adam's  sake,  started  thistles 
and  thorns,  condemned  man  to  eat  the  herb  of  the 
field  in  the  sweat  of  his  face,  pronounced  the  curse  of 
death,  "Dust  thou  art  and  unto  dust  shalt  thou 
return,"  made  coats  of  skins  for  Adam  and  Eve,  and 
drove  them  out  of  Eden. 

Who,    and  what  was  this  serpent  ?     Dr.   Adam 
Clark  says:  — "The  serpent  must  have  walked  erect, 


SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES.  I  29 

for  this  is  necessarily  implied  in  his  punishment. 
That  he  was  endued  with  the  gift  of  speech,  also  with 
reason.  That  these  things  were  given  to  this 
creature.  The  woman  no  doubt  having  often  seen 
him  walking  erect,  and  talking  and  reasoning,  there- 
fore she  testifies  no  sort  of  surprise  when  he  accosts 
her  in  the  language  related  in  the  text.  It  therefore 
appears  to  me  that  a  creature  of  the  ape  or  orang- 
outang kind  is  here  intended,  and  that  satan  made 
use  of  this  creature  as  the  most  proper  instrument 
for  the  accomplishment  of  his  murderous  purposes 
against  the  life  of  the  soul  of  man.  Under  this 
creature  he  lay  hid,  and  by  this  creature  he  seduced 
our  first  parents.  Such  a  creature  answers  to  every 
part  of  the  description  in  the  text.  It  is  evident 
from  the  structure  of  its  limbs  and  its  muscles  that  it 
might  have  been  originally  designed  to  walk  erect, 
and  that  nothing  else  than  the  sovereign  controlling 
power  could  induce  it  to  put  down  hands — in  every 
respect  formed  like  those  of  man — and  walk  like 
those  creatures  whose  claw-armed  parts  prove  them 
to  have  been  designed  to  walk  on  all  fours.  The 
stealthy  cunning,  and  endless  variety  of  the  pranks 
and  tricks  of  these  creatures  show  them  even  now  to 

be  wiser  and  more  intelligent  than  any  other  creature 
9 


130  SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES. 

man  alone  excepted.  Being  obliged  to  walk  on  all 
fours  and  gather  their  food  from  the  ground,  they  are 
literally  obliged  to  eat  the  dust ;  and  though 
exceeding  cunning,  and  careful  in  a  variety  of 
instances  to  separate  that  part  which  is  wholesome 
and  proper  for  food  from  that  which  is  not  so,  in  the 
article  of  cleanliness  they  are  lost  to  all  sense  of 
propriety.  Add  to  this  their  utter  aversion  to  walk 
upright;  it  requires  the  utmost  discipline  to  bring 
them  to  it,  and  scarcely  anything  offends  or  irritates 
them  more  than  to  be  obliged  to  do  it.  Long 
observation  of  these  animals  enables  me  to  state 
these  facts.  For  earnest,  attentive  watching,  and  for 
chattering  and  babbling  they  (the  ape)  have  no 
fellows  in  the  animal  world.  Indeed,  the  ability  and 
propensity  to  chatter,  is  all  they  have  left  of  their 
original  gift  of  speech,  of  which  they  appear  to  have 
been  deprived  at  the  fall  as  a  part  of  their  punish- 
ment." 

Here  then  is  the  "  connecting  link "  between 
man  and  the  lower  creation.  The  serpent  was 
simply  an  orang-outang  that  spoke  Hebrew  with  the 
greatest  ease,  and  had  the  outward  appearance  of  a 
perfect  gentleman,  seductive  in  manner,  plausible, 
polite,  and    most   admirably  calculated    to    deceive. 


SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES.  1 3 1 

It  never  did  seem  reasonable  to  me  that  a  loner  cold 
and  disgusting  snake  with  an  apple  in  his  mouth, 
could  deceive  anybody  ;  and  I  am  glad,  even  at  this 
late  date  to  know  that  the  something  that  persuaded 
Eve  to  taste  the  forbidden  fruit  was,  at  least,  in  the 
shape  of  a  man. 

Dr.  Henry  does  not  agree  with  the  zoological 
explanation  of  Mr.  Clark,  but  insists  that  "it  is 
certain  that  the  devil  that  beguiled  Eve  is  the  old 
serpent,  a  malignant  by  creation,  an  angel  of  light, 
an  immediate  attendant  upon  God's  throne,  but  by 
sin  an  apostate  from  his  first  state,  and  a  rebel 
against  God's  crown  and  dignity.  He  who  attacked 
our  first  parents  was  surely  the  prince  of  devils,  the 
ring  leader  in  rebellion.  The  devil  chose  to  act  his 
part  in  a  serpent,  because  it  is  a  specious  creature, 
has  a  spotted,  dappled  skin,  and  then,  went  erect. 
Perhaps  it  was  a  flying  serpent  which  seemed  to  come 
from  on  high,  as  a  messenger  from  the  upper  world, 
one  of  the  seraphim  ;  because  the  serpent  is  a  subtile 
creature.  What  Eve  thought  of  this  serpent  speak- 
ing to  her,  we  are  not  likely  to  tell,  and,  I  believe, 
she  herself  did  not  know  what  to  think  of  it.  At 
first,  perhaps,  she  supposed  it  might  be  a  good 
angel,  and  yet  afterwards   might   suspect  something 


132  SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES. 

amiss.  The  person  tempted  was  a  woman,  now 
alone,  and  at  a  distance  from  her  husband,  but  near 
the  forbidden  tree.  It  was  the  devil's  subtlety  to 
assault  the  weaker  vessel  with  his  temptations,  as  we 
may  suppose  her  inferior  to  Adam  in  knowledge, 
strength  and  presence  of  mind.  Some  think  that 
Eve  received  the  command  not  immediately  from 
Cod,  but  at  second  hand  from  her  husband,  and 
might,  therefore,  be  the  more  easily  persuaded  to 
discredit  it.  It  was  the  policy  of  the  devil  to  enter 
into  discussion  with  her  when  she  was  alone.  He 
took  advantage  by  finding  her  near  the  forbidden 
tree.  God  permitted  Satan  to  prevail  over  Eve, 
for  wise  and  holy  ends.  Satan  teaches  men  first  to 
doubt,  and  then  to  deny.  He  makes  skeptics  first, 
and  by  degrees  makes  them  atheists." 

We  are  compelled  to  admit  that  nothing  could 
be  more  attractive  to  a  woman  than  a  snake  walking 
erect,  with  a  "  spotted,  dappled  skin,"  unless  it  were 
a  serpent  with  wings.  Is  it  not  humiliating  to  know 
that  our  ancestors  believed  these  things  ?  Why 
should  we  object  to  the  Darwinian  doctrine  of  descent 
after  this  ? 

Our  fathers  thought  it  their  duty  to  believe, 
thought  it  a  sin  to  entertain  the  slightest  doubt,  and 


SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES.  135 

really  supposed  that  their  credulity  was  exceedingly/ 
gratifying  to  God.  To  them,  the  story  was  entirely 
real.  They  could  see  the  garden,  hear  the  babble  of 
waters,  smell  the  perfume  of  flowers.  They  believed 
there  was  a  tree  where  knowledge  grew  like  plums 
or  pears  ;  and  they  could  plainly  see  the  serpent 
coiled  amid  its  rustling  leaves,  coaxing  Eve  to  violate 
the  laws  of  God. 

Where  did  the  serpent  come  from  ?  On  which 
of  the  six  days  was  he  created  ?  Who  made  him  ? 
Is  it  possible  that  God  would  make  a  successful  rival? 
He  must  have  known  that  Adam  and  Eve  would  fall. 
He  knew  what  a  snake  with  a  "  spotted,  dappled  skin  " 
could  do  with  an  inexperienced  woman.  Why  did 
he  not  defend  his  children  ?  He  knew  that  if  the 
serpent  got  into  the  garden,  Adam  and  Eve  would 
sin,  that  he  would  have  to  drive  them  out,  that  after- 
wards the  world  would  be  destroyed,  and  that  he 
himself  would  die  upon  the  cross. 

Again,  I  ask  what  and  who  was  this  serpent? 
He  was  not  a  man,  for  only  one  man  had  been  made. 
He  was  not  a  woman.  He  was  not  a  beast  of  the 
field,  because  "  he  was  more  subtile  than  any  beast 
of  the  field  which  the  Lord  God  had  made."  He 
was  neither  fish  nor  fowl,  nor  snake,  because  he  had 


134  SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES. 

the  power  of  speech,  and  did  not  crawl  upon  his 
belly  until  after  he  was  cursed.  Where  did  this 
serpent  come  from  ?  Why  was  he  not  kept  out  of 
the  garden  ?  Why  did  not  the  Lord  God  take  him 
by  the  tail  and  snap  his  head  off?  Why  did  he  not 
put  Adam  and  Eve  on  their  guard  about  this  serpent? 
They,  of  course,  were  not  acquainted  in  the  neighbor- 
hood, and  knew  nothing  about  the  serpent's  reputation 
for  truth  and  veracity  among  his  neighbors.  Prob- 
ably Adam  saw  him  when  he  was  looking  for  "  an 
helpmeet."  and  gave  him  a  name,  but  Eve  had  never 
met  him  before.  She  was  not  surprised  to  hear  a 
serpent  talk,  as  that  was  the  first  one  she  had  ever 
met.  Every  thing  being  new  to  her,  and  her  husband 
not  being  with  her  just  at  that  moment,  it  need  hardly 
excite  our  wonder  that  she  tasted  the  fruit  by  way  of 
experiment.  Neither  should  we  be  surprised  that 
when  she  saw  it  was  good  and  pleasant  to  the  eye, 
and  a  fruit  to  be  desired  to  make  one  wise,  she  had 
the  generosity  to  divide  with  her  husband. 

Theologians  have  filled  thousands  of  volumes 
with  abuse  of  this  serpent,  but  it  seems  that  he  told 
the  exact  truth.  We  are  told  that  this  serpent  was, 
in  fact,  Satan,  the  greatest  enemy  of  mankind,  and 
that  he  entered  the  serpent,  appearing  to  our  first 


SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES.  I  ^5 


parents  in  its  body.  If  this  is  so,  why  should  the 
serpent  have  been  cursed  ?  Why  should  God  curse 
the  serpent  for  what  had  really  been  done  by  the 
devil  ?  Did  Satan  remain  in  the  body  of  the  serpent, 
^nd  in  some  mysterious  manner  share  his  punish- 
ment ?  Is  it  true  that  when  we  kill  a  snake  we  also 
destroy  an  evil  spirit,  or  is  there  but  one  devil,  and 
did  he  perish  at  the  death  of  the  first  serpent  ?  Is  it 
on  account  of  that  transaction  in  the  garden  of  Eden, 
that  all  the  descendents  of  Adam  and  Eve  known  as 
Jews  and  Christians  hate  serpents  ? 

Do  you  account  for  the  snake-worship  in  Mexico, 
Africa  and  India  in  the  same  way  ? 

What  was  the  form  of  the  serpent  when  he 
entered  the  garden,  and  in  what  way  did  he  move 
from  place  to  place  ?  Did  he  walk  or  fly  ?  Certainly 
he  did  not  crawl,  because  that  mode  of  locomotion 
was  pronounced  upon  him  as  a  curse.  Upon  what 
food  did  he  subsist  before  his  conversation  with  Eve  ? 
We  know  that  after  that  he  lived  upon  dust,  but 
what  did  he  eat  before  ?  It  may  be  that  this  is  all 
poetic ;  and  the  truest  poetry  is,  according  to  Touch- 
stone, "the  most  feigning." 

In  this  same  chapter  we  are  informed  that  "unto 
Adam  also  and  to  his  wife  did  the  Lord  God  make 


SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES. 


coats  of  skins  and  clothed  them."  Where  did  the 
Lord  God  get  those  skins  ?  He  must  have  taken 
them  from  the  animals ;  he  was  a  butcher.  Then  he 
had  to  prepare  them  ;  he  was  a  tanner.  Then  he 
made  them  into  coats ;  he  was  a  tailor.  How  did  it 
happen  that  they  needed  coats  of  skins,  when  they 
had  been  perfectly  comfortable  in  a  nude  condition  ? 
Did  the  "fall"  produce  a  change  in  the  climate? 

Is  it  really  necessary  to  believe  this  account  in 
order  to  be  happy  here,  or  hereafter  ?  Does  it  tend 
to  the  elevation  of  the  human  race  to  speak  of  "  God" 
as  a  butcher,  tanner  and  tailor  ? 

And  here,  let  me  say  once  for  all,  that  when  I 
speak  of  God,  I  mean  the  being  described  by  Moses  : 
the  Jehovah  of  the  Jews.  There  may  be  for  aught  I 
know,  somewhere  in  the  unknown  shoreless  vast, 
some  beinof  whose  dreams  are  constellations  and 
within  whose  thought  the  infinite  exists.  About  this 
being,  if  such  an  one  exists,  I  have  nothing  to  say. 
He  has  written  no  books,  inspired  no  barbarians, 
required  no  worship,  and  has  prepared  no  hell  in 
which  to  burn  the  honest  seeker  after  truth. 

When  I  speak  of  God,  I  mean  that  god  who  pre- 
vented man  from  putting  forth  his  hand  and  taking 
also  of  the  fruit  of  the  tree  of  life  that  he  might  live 


SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES.  137 

forever;  of  that  god  who  multiplied  the  agonies  of 
woman,  increased  the  weary  toil  of  man,  and  in  his 
anger  drowned  a  world — of  that  god  whose  altars 
reeked  with  human  blood,  who  butchered  babes, 
violated  maidens,  enslaved  men  and  filled  the  earth 
with  cruelty  and  crime  ;  of  that  god  who  made  heaven 
for  the  few,  hell  for  the  many,  and  who  will  gloat 
forever  and  ever  upon  the  writhings  of  the  lost  and 
damned. 


XVIII. 

DAMPNESS. 

a  ir  nd  It  came  to  pass,  when  men  began  to 
Jt\_  multiply  on  the  face  of  the  earth,  and 
daughters  were  born  unto  them. 

"That  the  sons  of  God  saw  the  daughters  of  men 
that  they  were  fair ;  and  they  took  them  wives  of  all 
which  they  chose. 

"And  the  Lord  said,  My  spirit  shall  not  always 
strive  with  man,  for  that  he  also  is  flesh  ;  yet  his  days 
shall  be  an  hundred  and  twenty  years. 

"There  were  giants  in  the  earth  in  those  days; 
and  also  after  that  when  the  sons  of  God  came  in 
unto  the  daughters  of  men,  and  they  bare  children  to 
them,  the  same  became  mighty  men  which  were  of 
old,  men  of  renown. 

"And  God  saw  that  the  wickedness  of  man 
was  great  in  the  earth,  and  that  every  imagina- 
tion of  the  thoughts  of  his  heart  was  only  evil 
continually. 


SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES.  139 

"  And  it  repented  the  Lord  that  he  had  made 
man  on  the  earth,  and  it  grieved  him  at  his 
heart. 

"And  the  Lord  said,  I  will  destroy  man  whom  I 
have  created  from  the  face  of  the  earth;  both  man, 
and  beast,  and  the  creeping  thing,  and  the  fowls  of 
the  air ;  for  it  repenteth  me  that  I  have  made 
them." 

From  this  account  it  seems  that  driving  Adam 
and  Eve  out  of  Eden  did  not  have  the  effect  to 
improve  them  or  their  children.  On  the  contrary, 
the  world  grew  worse  and  worse.  They  were  under 
the  immediate  control  and  government  of  God, 
and  he  from  time  to  time  made  known  his  will  ; 
but  in  spite  of  this,  man  continued  to  increase 
in  crime. 

Nothing  in  particular  seems  to  have  been  done. 
Not  a  school  was  established.  There  was  no  written 
language.  There  was  not  a  bible  in  the  world. 
The  "  scheme  of  salvation  "  was  kept  a  profound 
secret.  The  five  points  of  Calvinism  had  not  been 
taught.  Sunday  schools  had  not  been  opened.  In 
short,  nothing  had  been  done  for  the  reformation  of 
the  world.  God  did  not  even  keep  his  own  sons  at 
home,  but  allowed  them  to  leave  their  abode  in  the 


I40  SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES. 

firmament,  and  make  love  to  the  daughters  of  men. 
As  a  result  of  this,  the  world  was  filled  with  wicked- 
ness and  giants  to  such  an  extent  that  God  regretted 
"  that  he  had  made  man  on  the  earth,  and  it  grieved 
him  at  his  heart." 

Of  course  God  knew  when  he  made  man,  that  he 
would  afterwards  regret  it.  He  knew  that  the 
people  would  grow  worse  and  worse  until  destruction 
would  be  the  only  remedy.  He  knew  that  he  would 
have  to  kill  all  except  Noah  and  his  family,  and  it  is 
hard  to  see  why  he  did  not  make  Noah  and  his 
family  in  the  first  place,  and  leave  Adam  and  Eve  in 
the  original  dust.  He  knew  that  they  would  be 
tempted,  that  he  would  have  to  drive  them  out  of 
the  garden  to  keep  them  from  eating  of  the  tree  of 
life  ;  that  the  whole  thing  would  be  a  failure  ;  that 
Satan  would  defeat  his  plan  ;  that  he  could  not 
reform  the  people  ;  that  his  own  sons  would  corrupt 
them,  and  that  at  last  he  would  have  to  drown  them 
all  except  Noah  and  his  family.  Why  was  the 
garden  of  Eden  planted  ?  Why  was  the  experiment 
made  ?  Why  were  Adam  and  Eve  exposed  to  the 
seductive  arts  of  the  serpent  ?  Why  did  God  wait 
until  the  cool  of  the  day  before  looking  after  his 
children  ?     Why  was  he  not  on  hand  in  the  morning? 


SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES.  I4I 

Why  did  he  fill  the  world  with  his  own  children, 
knowing  that  he  would  have  to  destroy  them  ?  And 
why  does  this  same  God  tell  me  how  to  raise  my 
children  when  he  had  to  drown  his  ? 

It  is  a  little  curious  that  when  God  wished  to 
reform  the  ante-diluvian  world  he  said  nothing  about 
hell  ;  that  he  had  no  revivals,  no  camp-meetings,  no 
tracts,  no  outpourings  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  no  bap- 
tisms, no  noon  prayer  meetings,  and  never  mentioned 
the  great  doctrine  of  salvation  by  faith.  If  the 
orthodox  creeds  of  the  world  are  true,  all  those 
people  went  to  hell  without  ever  having  heard  that 
such  a  place  existed.  If  eternal  torment  is  a  fact, 
surely  these  miserable  wretches  ought  to  have  been 
warned.  They  were  threatened  only  with  water 
when  they  were  in  fact  doomed  to  eternal  fire  ! 

Is  it  not  strange  that  God  said  nothing  to  Adam 
and  Eve  about  a  future  life  ;  that  he  should  have  kept 
these  "  infinite  verities "  to  himself  and  allowed 
millions  to  live  and  die  without  the  hope  of  heaven, 
or  the  fear  of  hell  ? 

It  may  be  that  hell  was  not  made  at  that  time. 
In  the  six  days  of  creation  nothing  is  said  about  the 
construction  of  a  bottomless  pit,  and  the  serpent 
himself  did  not  make  his  appearance  until  after  the 


142  SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES. 

creation  of  man  and  woman.  Perhaps  he  was  made 
on  the  first  Sunday,  and  from  that  fact  came,  it  may 
be,  the  old  couplet, 

"And  Satan  still  some  mischief  finds 
For  idle  hands  to  do." 

The  sacred  historian  failed  also  to  tell  us  when 
the  cherubim  and  the  flaming  sword  were  made,  and 
said  nothing  about  two  of  the  persons  composing  the 
trinity.  It  certainly  would  have  been  an  easy  thing 
to  enlighten  Adam  and  his  immediate  descendants. 
The  world  was  then  only  about  fifteen  hundred  and 
thirty-six  years  old,  and  only  about  three  or  four 
generations  of  men  had  lived.  Adam  had  been  dead 
only  about  six  hundred  and  six  years,  and  some  of 
his  grand  children  must,  at  that  time,  have  been  alive 
and  well. 

It  is  hard  to  see  why  God  did  not  civilize  these 
people.  He  certainly  had  the  power  to  use,  and  the 
wisdom  to  devise  the  proper  means.  What  right 
has  a  god  to  fill  a  world  with  fiends  ?  Can  there  be 
goodness  in  this?  Why  should  he  make  experi- 
ments that  he  knows  must  fail  ?  Is  there  wisdom  in 
this  ?  And  what  right  has  a  man  to  charge  an 
infinite  being  with  wickedness  and  folly  ? 


SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES.  143 

According  to  Moses,  God  made  up  his  mind  not 
only  to  destroy  the  people,  but  the  beasts  and  the 
creeping  things,  and  the  fowls  of  the  air.  What  had 
the  beasts,  and  the  creeping  things,  and  the  birds 
done  to  excite  the  anger  of  God  ?  Why  did  he 
repent  having  made  them  ?  Will  some  christian 
give  us  an  explanation  of  this  matter  ?  No  good 
man  will  inflict  unnecessary  pain  upon  a  beast ;  how 
then  can  we  worship  a  god  who  cares  nothing  for 
the  agonies  of  the  dumb  creatures  that  he  made  ? 

Why  did  he  make  animals  that  he  knew  he 
would  destroy  ?  Does  God  delight  in  causing  pain? 
He  had  the  power  to  make  the  beasts,  and  fowls, 
and  creeping  things  in  his  own  good  time  and  way, 
and  it  is  to  be  presumed  that  he  made  them  accord- 
ing to  his  wish.  Why  should  he  destroy  them  ? 
They  had  committed  no  sin.  They  had  eaten  no 
forbidden  fruit,  made  no  aprons,  nor  tried  to  reach 
the  tree  of  life.  Yet  this  god,  in  blind  unreasoning 
wrath  destroyed  "  all  flesh  wherein  was  the  breath  of 
life,  and  every  living  thing  beneath  the  sky,  and 
every  substance  wherein  was  life  that  he  had 
made." 

Jehovah,  having  made  up  his  mind  to  drown  the 
world,  told   Noah  to  make  an  Ark  of  gopher  wood 


144  SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES. 


three  hundred  cubits  long,  fifty  cubits  wide  and  thirty 
cubits  high.  A  cubit  is  twenty-two  inches  ;  so  that 
the  ark  was  five  hundred  and  fifty  feet  long,  ninety- 
one  feet  and  eight  inches  wide  and  fifty-five  feet 
high.  This  ark  was  divided  into  three  stories,  and 
had  on  top,  one  window  twenty-two  inches  square. 
Ventilation  must  have  been  one  of  Jehovah's 
hobbies.  Think  of  a  ship  larger  than  the  Great 
Eastern  with  only  one  window,  and  that  but  twenty- 
two  inches  square! 

The  ark  also  had  one  door  set  in  the  side  thereof 
that  shut  from  the  outside.  As  soon  as  this  ship  was 
finished,  and  properly  victualed,  Noah  received  seven 
days  notice  to  get  the  animals  in  the  ark. 

It  is  claimed  by  some  of  the  scientific  theologians 
that  the  flood  was  partial,  that  the  waters  covered 
only  a  small  portion  of  the  world,  and  that  conse- 
quently only  a  few  animals  were  in  the  ark.  It  is 
impossible  to  conceive  of  language  that  can  more 
clearly  convey  the  idea  of  a  universal  flood  than  that 
found  in  the  inspired  account.  If  the  flood  was  only 
partial,  why  did  God  say  he  would  "destroy  all  flesh 
wherein  is  the  breath  of  life  from  under  heaven,  and 
that  every  thing  that  is  in  the  earth  shall  die?" 
Why  did  he  say  "  I  will  destroy  man  whom  I  have 


SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES.  145 

created  from  the  face  of  the  earth,  both  man  and 
beast,  and  the  creeping  thing  and  the  fowls  of  the 
air  ?  "  Why  did  he  say  "  And  every  living  substance 
that  I  have  made  will  I  destroy  from  off  the  face  of 
the  earth  ?  "  Would  a  partial,  local  flood  have  fulfilled 
these  threats  ? 

Nothing  can  be  clearer  than  that  the  writer  of 
this  account  intended  to  convey,  and  did  convey  the 
idea  that  the  flood  was  universal.  Why  should 
christians  try  to  deprive  God  of  the  glory  of  having 
wrought  the  most  stupendous  of  miracles  ?  Is  it 
possible  that  the  Infinite  could  not  overwhelm  with 
waves  this  atom  called  the  Earth  ?  Do  you  doubt 
his  power,  his  wisdom  or  his  justice  ? 

Believers  in  miracles  should  not  endeavor  to 
explain  them.  There  is  but  one  way  to  explain  any- 
thing, and  that  is  to  account  for  it  by  natural 
agencies.  The  moment  you  explain  a  miracle,  it 
disappears.  You  should  depend  not  upon  explana 
tion,  but  assertion.  You  should  not  be  driven  from 
the  field  because  the  miracle  is  shown  to  be 
unreasonable.  You  should  reply  that  all  miracles  are 
unreasonable.  Neither  should  you  be  in  the  least 
disheartened  if  it  is  shown  to  be  impossible.  The 
possible   is   not   miraculous.     You   should   take   the 

10 


I46  SOME   MISTAKES    OF    MOSES. 

ground  that  if  miracles  were  reasonable,  and  possible, 
there  would  be  no  reward  paid  for  believing  them. 
The  christian  has  the  goodness  to  believe,  while  the 
sinner  asks  for  evidence.  It  is  enough  for  God  to 
work  miracles  without  being  called  upon  to  sub- 
stantiate them  for  the  benefit  of  unbelievers. 

Only  a  few  years  ago,  the  christians  believed 
implicitly  in  the  literal  truth  of  every  miracle  recorded 
in  the  bible.  Whoever  tried  to  explain  them  in  some 
natural  way,  was  looked  upon  as  an  infidel  in  dis- 
guise, but  now  he  is  regarded  as  a  benefactor.  The 
credulity  of  the  Church  is  decreasing,  and  the  most 
marvelous  miracles  are  now  either  "explained,"  or 
allowed  to  take  refuge  behind  the  mistakes  of  the 
translators,  or  hide  in  the  drapery  of  allegory. 

In  the  sixth  chapter,  Noah  is  ordered  to  take  "of 
every  living  thing  of  all  flesh,  two  of  every  sort  into 
the  ark — male  and  female."  In  the  seventh  chapter 
the  order  is  changed,  and  Noah  is  commanded, 
according  to  the  Protestant  bible,  as  follows :  "  Of 
every  clean  beast  thou  shalt  take  to  thee  by  sevens, 
the  male  and  his  female,  and  of  beasts  that  are 
not  clean,  by  two,  the  male  and  his  female.  Of 
fowls  also  of  the  air  by  sevens,  the  male  and  the 
female." 


SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES.  1 47 

According  to  the  Catholic  bible,  Noah  was. 
commanded — "Of  all  clean  beasts  take  seven  and 
seven,  the  male  and  the  female.  But  of  the  beasts 
that  are  unclean  two  and  two,  the  male  and  the 
female.  Of  the  fowls  also  of  the  air  seven  and  seven, 
the  male  and  the  female." 

For  the  purpose  of  belittling  this  miracle,  many 
commentators  have  taken  the  ground  t]lat  Noah  was 
not  ordered  to  take  seven  males  and  seven  females 
of  each  kind  of  clean  beasts,  but  seven  in  all.  Many 
christians  contend  that  only  seven  clean  beasts  of 
each  kind  were  taken  into  the  ark — three  and  a  half 
of  each  sex. 

If  the  account  in  the  seventh  chapter  means  any- 
thing, it  meansyfrjr/,  that  of  each  kind  of  clean  beasts, 
fourteen  were  to  be  taken,  seven  males,  and  seven 
females ;  second,  that  of  unclean  beasts  should  be 
taken,  two  of  each  kind,  one  of  each  sex,  and  third, 
that  he  should  take  of  every  kind  of  fowls,  seven  of 
each  sex. 

It  is  equally  clear  that  the  command  in  the  19th 
and  20th  verses  of  the  6th  chapter,  is  to  take  two  of 
each  sort,  one  male  and  one  female.  And  this  agrees 
exactly  with  the  account  in  the  7th,  8th,  9th,  14th. 
1 5th,  and  16th  verses  of  the  7th  chapter. 


I48  SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES. 

The  next  question  is,  how  many  beasts,  fowls  and 
creeping  things  did  Noah  take  into  the  ark  ? 

There  are  now  known  and  classified  at  least 
twelve  thousand  five  hundred  species  of  birds. 
There  are  still  vast  territories  in  China,  South 
America,  and  Africa  unknown  to  the  ornithologist. 

Of  the  birds,  Noah  took  fourteen  of  each  species, 
according  to  the  3d  verse  of  the  7th  chapter,  "  Of 
fowls  also  of  the  air  by  sevens,  the  male  and  the 
female,"  making  a  total  of  17 5, 000  birds. 

And  right  here  allow  me  to  ask  a  question.  If  the 
flood  was  simply  a  partial  flood,  why  were  birds  taken 
into  the  ark  ?  It  seems  to  me  that  most  birds,  attend- 
ing strictly  to  business,  might  avoid  a  partial  flood. 

There  are  at  least  sixteen  hundred  and  fifty-eight 
kinds  of  beasts.  Let  us  suppose  that  twenty-five  of 
these  are  clean.  Of  the  clean,  fourteen  of  each  kind 
— seven  of  each  sex — were  taken.  These  amount  to 
35o.  Of  the  unclean — two  of  each  kind,  amounting 
to  3,266.  There  are  some  six  hundred  and  fifty 
species  of  reptiles.  Two  of  each  kind  amount  to 
1 ,300.  And  lastly,  there  are  of  insects  including  the 
creeping  things,  at  least  one  million  species,  so  that 
Noah  and  his  folks  had  to  get  of  these  into  the  ark 
about  2,000,000. 


SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES.  1 49 

Animalculae  have  not  been  taken  into  consider- 
ation. There  are  probably  many  hundreds  of 
thousands  of  species  ;  many  of  them  invisible  ;  and 
yet  Noah  had  to  pick  them  out  by  pairs.  Very  few 
people  have  any  just  conception  of  the  trouble 
Noah  had. 

We  know  that  there  are  many  animals  on  this 
continent  not  found  in  the  Old  World.  These  must 
have  been  carried  from  here  to  the  ark,  and  then 
brought  back  afterwards.  Were  the  peccary,  arma- 
dillo, ant-eater,  sloth,  agouti,  vampire-bat,  marmoset, 
howling  and  prehensile-tailed  monkey,  the  raccoon 
and  muskrat  carried  by  the  angels  from  America  to 
Asia  ?  How  did  they  get  there  ?  Did  the  polar 
bear  leave  his  field  of  ice  and  journey  toward  the 
tropics  ?  How  did  he  know  where  the  ark  was  ? 
Did  the  kangaroo  swim  or  jump  from  Australia  to 
Asia  ?  Did  the  giraffe,  hippopotamus,  antelope  and 
orang-outang  journey,  from  Africa  in  search  of  the 
ark  ?     Can  absurdities  £0  farther  than  this  ? 

What  had  these  animals  to  eat  while  on  the 
journey  ?  What  did  they  eat  while  in  the  ark  ? 
What  did  they  drink  ?  When  the  rain  came,  of 
course  the  rivers  ran  to  the  seas,  and  these  seas  rose 
and  finally  covered  the  world.     The  waters  of  the 


l5o  SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES. 

seas,  mingled  with  those  of  the  flood,  would  make  all 
salt.  It  has  been  calculated  that  it  required,  to 
drown  the  world,  about  eight  times  as  much  water  as 
was  in  all  the  seas.  To  find  how  salt  the  waters  of 
the  flood  must  have  been,  take  eight  quarts  of  fresh 
water,  and  add  one  quart  from  the  sea.  Such  water 
would  create  instead  of  allaying  thirst.  Noah  had  to 
take  in  his  ark  fresh  water  for  all  his  beasts,  birds 
and  living  things.  He  had  to  take  the  proper  food 
for  all.  How  long  was  he  in  the  ark  ?  Three 
hundred  and  seventy-seven  days  !  Think  of  the  food 
necessary  for  the  monsters  of  the  ante-diluvian 
world ! 

Eight  persons  did  all  the  work.  They  attended 
to  the  wants  of  175,000  birds,  3,616  beasts,  1,300 
reptiles,  and  2,000,000  insects,  saying  nothing  of 
countless  animalculse. 

Well,  after  they  all  got  in,  Noah  pulled  down 
the  window,  God  shut  the  door,  and  the  rain  com- 
menced. 

How  \oncr  did  it  rain  ? 

Forty  days. 

How  deep  did  the  water  get  ? 

About  five  miles  and  a  half. 

How  much  did  it  rain  a  day  ? 


SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES.  l5l 

Enough  to  cover  the  whole  world  to  a  depth  of 
about  seven  hundred  and  forty-two  feet. 

Some  Christians  say  that  the  fountains  of  the 
great  deep  were  broken  up.  Will  they  be  kind 
enough  to  tell  us  what  the  fountains  of  the  great 
deep  are  ?  Others  say  that  God  had  vast  stores  of 
water  in  the  center  of  the  earth  that  he  used  on 
that  occasion.  How  did  these  waters  happen  to  run 
up  hill  ? 

Gentlemen,  allow  me  to  tell  you  once  more  that 
you  must  not  try  to  explain  these  things.  Your 
efforts  in  that  direction  do  no  good,  because  your 
explanations  are  harder  to  believe  than  the  miracle 
itself.  Take  my  advice,  stick  to  assertion,  and  let 
explanation  alone. 

Then,  as  now,  Dhawalagiri  lifted  its  crown  of 
snow  twenty-nine  thousand  feet  above  the  level  of 
the  sea,  and  on  the  cloudless  cliffs  of  Chimborazo 
then,  as  now,  sat  the  condor  ;  and  yet  the  waters 
rising  seven  hundred  and  twenty-six  feet  a  day — 
thirty  feet  an  hour,  six  inches  a  minute, — rose  over 
the  hills,  over  the  volcanoes,  filled  the  vast  craters, 
extinguished  all  the  fires,  rose  above  every  mountain 
peak  until  the  vast  world  was  but  one  shoreless  sea 
covered  with  the  innumerable  dead. 


1 52  SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES. 

Was  this  the  work  of  the  most  merciful  God,  the 
father  of  us  all  ?  If  there  is  a  God,  can  there  be  the 
slightest  danger  of  incurring  his  displeasure  by 
doubting  even  in  a  reverential  way,  the  truth 
of  such  a  cruel  lie  ?  If  we  think  that  God  is 
kinder  than  he  really  is,  will  our  poor  souls  be 
burned  for  that  ? 

How  many  trees  can  live  under  miles  of  water  for 
a  year  ?  What  became  of  the  soil  washed,  scattered, 
dissolved,  and  covered  with  the  debris  of  a  world  ? 
How  were  the  tender  plants  and  herbs  preserved  ? 
How  were  the  animals  preserved  after  leaving  the 
ark  ?  There  was  no  grass  except  such  as  had  been 
submerged  for  a  year.  There  were  no  animals  to 
be  devoured  by  the  carnivorous  beasts.  What  be- 
came of  the  birds  that  fed  on  worms  and  insects  ? 
What  became  of  the  birds  that  devoured  other 
birds  ? 

It  must  be  remembered  that  the  pressure  of  the 
water  when  at  the  highest  point — say  twenty-nine 
thousand  feet,  would  have  been  about  eight  hundred 
tons  on  each  square  foot.  Such  a  pressure  certainly 
would  have  destroyed  nearly  every  vestige  of  vege- 
table life,  so  that  when  the  animals  came  out  of 
the    ark,    there    was    not    a   mouthful  of    food    in 


SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES.  1 53 

the  wide  world.  How  were  they  supported 
until  the  world  was  again  clothed  with  grass  ? 
How  were  those  animals  taken  care  of  that  sub- 
sisted on  others  ?  Where  did  the  bees  get 
honey,  and  the  ants  seeds  ?  There  was  not  a 
creeping  thing  upon  the  whole  earth  ;  not  a 
breathing  creature  beneath  the  whole  heavens  ; 
not  a  living  substance.  Where  did  the  tenants 
of  the  ark  get  food  ? 

There  is  but  one  answer,  if  the  story  is  true. 
The  food  necessary  not  only  during  the  year  of  the 
flood,  but  sufficient  for  many  months  afterwards,  must 
have  been  stored  in  the  ark. 

There  is  probably  not  an  animal  in  the 
world  that  will  not,  in  a  year,  eat  and  drink 
ten  times  its  weight.  Noah  must  have  pro- 
vided food  and  water  for  a  year  while  in  the 
ark,  and  food  for  at  least  six  months  after  they 
got  ashore.  It  must  have  required  for  a  pair 
of  elephants,  about  one  hundred  and  fifty  tons 
of  food  and  water.  A  couple  of  mammoths 
would  have  required  about  twice  that  amount. 
Of  course  there  were  other  monsters  that  lived 
on  trees  ;  and  in  a  year  would  have  devoured 
quite  a  forest. 


1 54  SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES. 


How  could  eight  persons  have  distributed  this 
food,  even  if  the  ark  had  been  large  enough  to  hold 
it  ?  How  was  the  ark  kept  clean  ?  We  know  how 
it  was  ventilated  ;  but  what  was  done  with  the  filth  ? 
How  were  the  animals  watered?  How  were  some 
portions  of  the  ark  heated  for  animals  from  the 
tropics,  and  others  kept  cool  for  the  polar  bears  ? 
How  did  the  animals  get  back  to  their  respective 
countries  ?  Some  had  to  creep  back  about  six 
thousand  miles,  and  they  could  only  go  a  few  feet  a 
day.  Some  of  the  creeping  things  must  have  started 
for  the  ark  just  as  soon  as  they  were  made,  and  kept 
up  a  steady  jog  for  sixteen  hundred  years.  Think 
of  a  couple  of  the  slowest  snails  leaving  a  point 
opposite  the  ark  and  starting  for  the  plains  of  Shinar, 
a  distance  of  twelve  thousand  miles.  Goine  at  the 
rate  of  a  mile  a  month,  it  would  take  them  a  thousand 
years.  How  did  they  get  there  ?  Polar  bears  must 
have  gone  several  thousand  miles,  and  so  sudden  a 
change  in  climate  must  have  been  exceedingly  trying 
upon  their  health.  How  did  they  know  the  way  to 
go  ?  Of  course,  all  the  polar  bears  did  not  go. 
Only  two  were  required.     Who  selected  these  ? 

Two  sloths  had  to  make  the  journey  from  South 
America.     These  creatures  cannot  travel  to  exceed 


SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES.  1 55 

three  rods  a  day.  At  this  rate,  they  would  make  a 
mile  in  about  a  hundred  days.  They  must  have  gone 
about  six  thousand  five  hundred  miles,  to  reach  the 
ark.  Supposing  them  to  have  traveled  by  a  reason- 
ably direct  route,  in  order  to  complete  the  journey 
before  Noah  hauled  in  the  plank,  they  must  have 
started  several  years  before  the  world  was  created. 
We  must  also  consider  that  these  sloths  had  to  board 
themselves  on  the  way,  and  that  most  of  their  time 
had  to  be  taken  up  getting  food  and  water.  It  is 
exceedingly  doubtful  whether  a  sloth  could  travel  six 
thousand  miles  and  board  himself  in  less  than  three 
thousand  years. 

Volumes  might  be  written  upon  the  infinite 
absurdity  of  this  most  incredible,  wicked  and  foolish 
of  all  the  fables  contained  in  that  repository  of  the 
impossible,  called  the  bible.  To  me  it  is  a  matter  of 
amazement,  that  it  ever  was  for  a  moment  believed 
by  any  intelligent  human  being. 

Dr.  Adam  Clark  says  that  ''the  animals  were 
brought  to  the  ark  by  the  power  of  God,  and  their 
enmities  were  so  removed  or  suspended,  that  the 
lion  could  dwell  peaceably  with  the  lamb,  and  the 
wolf  sleep  happily  by  the  side  of  the  kid.  There  is 
no    positive    evidence    that    animal    food   was    ever 


1 56  SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSfiS. 

used  before  the  flood.  Noah  had  the  first  grant  of 
this  kind." 

Dr.  Scott  remarks,  "There  seems  to  have  been  a 
very  extraordinary  miracle,  perhaps  by  the  ministra- 
tion of  angels,  in  bringing  two  of  every  species  to 
Noah,  and  rendering  them  submissive,  and  peaceful 
with  each  other.  Yet  it  seems  not  to  have  made  any 
impression  upon  the  hardened  spectators.  The  sus- 
pension of  the  ferocity  of  the  savage  beasts  during 
their  continuance  in  the  ark,  is  generally  considered 
as  an  apt  figure  of  the  change  that  takes  place  in  the 
disposition  of  sinners  when  they  enter  the  true 
church  of  Christ." 

He  believed  the  deluge  to  have  been  universal. 
In  his  day  science  had  not  demonstrated  the  absurdity 
of  this  belief,  and  he  was  not  compelled  to  resort  to 
some  theory  not  found  in  the  bible.  He  insisted 
that  "by  some  vast  convulsion,  the  very  bowels  of 
the  earth  were  forced  upwards,  and  rain  poured  down 
in  cataracts  and  water-spouts,  with  no  intermission 
for  forty  days  and  nights,  and  until  in  every  place  a 
universal  deluge  was  effected. 

"The  presence  of  God  was  the  only  comfort  of 
Noah  in  his  dreary  confinement,  and  in  witnessing 
the  dire  devastation  of  the  earth  and  its  inhabitants, 


SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES.  1 5/ 

and  especially  of  the  human  species — of  his  com- 
panions, his  neighbors,  his  relatives — all  those  to 
whom  he  had  preached,  for  whom  he  had  prayed  and 
over  whom  he  had  wept,  and  even  of  many  who  had 
helped  to  build  the  ark. 

"  It  seems  that  by  a  peculiar  providential  interpo- 
sition, no  animal  of  any  sort  died,  although  they  had 
been  shut  up  in  the  ark  above  a  year ;  and  it  does 
not  appear  that  there  had  been  any  increase  of  them 
during  that  time. 

"The  Ark  was  flat-bottomed — square  at  each 
end — roofed  like  a  house  so  that  it  terminated  at  the 
top  in  the  breadth  of  a  cubit.  It  was  divided  into 
many  little  cabins  for  its  intended  inhabitants. 
Pitched  within  and  without  to  keep  it  tight  and 
sweet,  and  lighted  from  the  upper  part.  But  it  must, 
at  first  sight,  be  evident  that  so  lar^e  a  vessel,  thus 
constructed,  with  so  few  persons  on  board,  was 
utterly  unfitted  to  weather  out  the  deluge,  except  it 
was  under  the  immediate  guidance  and  protection  of 
the  Almighty." 

Dr.  Henry  furnished  the  Christian  world  with 
the  following1  : — 

"  As  our  bodies  have  in  them  the  humors  which, 
when  God  pleases,  become  the  springs  and  seeds  of 


1 58  SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES. 

mortal  disease,  so  the  earth  had,  in  its  bowels,  those 
waters  which,  at  God's  command,  sprung  up  and 
flooded  it. 

"  God  made  the  world  in  six  days,  but  he  was 
forty  days  in  destroying  it,  because  he  is  slow  to 
anger. 

"  The  hostilities  between  the  animals  in  the  ark 
ceased,  and  ravenous  creatures  became  mild  and 
manageable,  so  that  the  wolf  lay  down  with  the  lamb, 
and  the  lion  ate  straw  like  an  ox. 

"  God  shut  the  door  of  the  ark  to  secure  Noah 
and  to  keep  him  safe,  and  because  it  was  necessary 
that  the  door  should  be  shut  very  close  lest  the  water 
should  break  in  and  sink  the  ark,  and  very  fast  lest 
others  might  break  it  down. 

"The  waters  rose  so  high  that  not  only  the  low 
flat  countries  were  deluged,  but  to  make  sure  work 
and  that  none  might  escape,  the  tops  of  the  highest 
mountains  were  overflowed  fifteen  cubits.  That  is, 
seven  and  a  half  yards,  so  that  salvation  was  not 
hoped  for  from  hills  or  mountains. 

"  Perhaps  some  of  the  people  got  to  the  top  of  the 
ark,  and  hoped  to  shift  for  themselves  there.  But 
either  they  perished  there  for  want  of  food,  or  the 
dashing  rain  washed  them  off  the  top.     Others,  it 


SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES.  1 59 

may  be,  hoped  to  prevail  with  Noah  for  admission 
into  the  ark,  and  plead  old  acquaintance. 

"  '  Have  we  not  eaten  and  drank  in  thy  presence  ? 
Hast  thou  not  preached  in  our  streets  ?  '  '  Yea,' 
said  Noah,  '  many  a  time,  but  to  little  purpose.  I 
called  but  ye  refused  ;  and  now  it  is  not  in  my 
power  to  help  you.  God  has  shut  the  door  and  I 
cannot  open  it.' 

"  We  may  suppose  that  some  of  those  who  per- 
ished in  the  deluge  had  themselves  assisted  Noah,  or 
were  employed  by  him  in  building  the  ark. 

"  Hitherto,  man  had  been  confined  to  feed  only 
upon  the  products  of  the  earth.  Fruits,  herbs  and 
roots,  and  all  sorts  of  greens,  and  milk,  which  was 
the  first  grant ;  but  the  flood  having  perhaps  washed 
away  much  of  the  fruits  of  the  earth,  and  rendered 
them  much  less  pleasant  and  nourishing,  God 
enlarged  the  grant  and  allowed  him  to  eat  flesh, 
which  perhaps  man  never  thought  of  until  now,  that 
God  directed  him  to  it.  Nor  had  he  any  more  desire 
to  it  than  the  sheep  has  to  suck  blood  like  the  wolf. 
But  now,  man  is  allowed  to  feed  upon  flesh  as  freely 
and  safely  as  upon  the  green  herb." 

Such  was  the  debasing  influence  of  a  belief  in 
the  literal  truth  of  the  bible  upon  these  men,  that 


l6o  SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES. 

their  commentaries  are  filled  with  passages  utterly 
devoid  of  common  sense. 

Dr.  Clark  speaking  of  the  mammoth  says  : 

"  This  animal,  an  astonishing  proof  of  God's 
power,  he  seems  to  have  produced  merely  to  show 
what  he  could  do.  And  after  suffering  a  few  of 
them  to  propagate,  he  extinguished  the  race  by  a 
merciful  providence,  that  they  might  not  destroy 
both  man  and  beast. 

"  We  are  told  that  it  would  have  been  much 
easier  for  God  to  destroy  all  the  people  and  make 
new  ones,  but  he  would  not  want  to  waste  anything 
and  no  power  or  skill  should  be  lavished  where  no 
necessity  exists. 

"  The  animals  were  brought  to  the  ark  by  the 
power  of  God." 

Again  gentlemen,  let  me  warn  you  of  the  danger 
of  trying  to  explain  a  miracle.  Let  it  alone.  Say 
that  you  do  not  understand  it,  and  do  not  expect  to 
until  taught  in  the  schools  of  the  New  Jerusalem. 
The  more  reasons  you  give,  the  more  unreason- 
able the  miracle  will  appear.  Through  what  you 
say  in  defence  people  are  led  to  think,  and  as 
soon  as  they  really  think,  the  miracle  is  thrown 
away. 


SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES.  l6l 


Among  the  most  ignorant  nations  you  will  find 
the  most  wonders,  among  the  most  enlightened,  the 
least.  It  is  with  individuals,  the  same  as  with 
nations.  Ignorance  believes,  Intelligence  examines 
and  explains. 

For  about  seven  months  the  ark,  with  its  cargo  of 
men,  animals  and  insects,  tossed  and  wandered  with- 
out rudder  or  sail  upon  a  boundless  sea.  At  last  it 
grounded  on  the  mountains  of  Ararat  ;  and  about 
three  months  afterwards  the  tops  of  the  mountains 
became  visible.  It  must  not  be  forgotten  that  the 
mountain  where  the  ark  is  supposed  to  have  first 
touched  bottom,  was  about  seventeen  thousand  feet 
high.  How  were  the  animals  from  the  tropics  kept 
warm  ?  When  the  waters  were  abated  it  would  be 
intensely  cold  at  a  point  seventeen  thousand  feet 
above  the  level  of  the  sea.  May  be  there  were 
stoves,  furnaces,  fire  places  and  steam  coils  in  the  ark, 
but  they  are  not  mentioned  in  the  inspired  narrative. 
How  were  the  animals  kept  from  freezing  ?  It  will 
not  do  to  say  that  Ararat  was  not  very  high  after  all. 

If  you  will  read  the  fourth  and  fifth  verses  of  the 

eight  chapter  you  will  see  that  although  "  the  ark 

rested  in  the  seventh  month,  on  the  seventeenth  day 

of  the  month,  upon  the  mountains  of  Ararat,  it  was 
u 


1 62  SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES. 

not  until  the  first  day  of  the  tenth  month  "  that  the 
tops  of  the  mountains  could  be  seen."  From  this  it 
would  seem  that  the  ark  must  have  rested  upon  about 
the  highest  peak  in  that  country.  Noah  waited  forty 
days  more,  and  then  for  the  first  time  opened  the 
window  and  took  a  breath  of  fresh  air.  He  then 
sent  out  a  raven  that  did  not  return,  then  a  dove  that 
returned.  He  then  waited  seven  days  and  sent 
forth  a  dove  that  returned  not.  From  this  he  knew 
that  the  waters  were  abated.  Is  it  possible  that  he 
could  not  see  whether  the  waters  had  gone  ?  Is  it 
possible  to  conceive  of  a  more  perfectly  childish  way 
of  ascertaining  whether  the  earth  was  dry  ? 

At  last  Noah  "  removed  the  covering  of  the  ark, 
and  looked  and  behold  the  face  of  the  ground  was 
dry,"  and  thereupon  God  told  him  to  disembark. 
In  his  gratitude  Noah  built  an  altar  and  took  of 
every  clean  beast  and  of  every  clean  fowl,  and  offered 
burnt  offerings.  P  .id  the  Lord  smelled  a  sweet 
savor  and  said  ir  his  heart  that  he  would  not  any 
more  curse  the  ground  for  man's  sake.  For  saying 
this  in  his  heart  the  Lord  gives  as  a  reason,  not  that 
man  is,  or  will  be  good,  but  because  "  the  imagina- 
tion of  man's  heart  is  evil  from  his  youth."  God 
destroyed  man  because  "  the  wickedness  of  man  was 


SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES.  1 6 


6 


great  in  the  earth,  and  because  every  imagination  of 
the  thoughts  of  his  heart  was  only  evil  continually '." 
And  he  promised  for  the  same  reason  not  to  destroy 
him  again.  Will  some  gentleman  skilled  in  theology 
give  us  an  explanation  ? 

After  God  had  smelled  the  sweet  savor  of  sacri- 
fice, he  seems  to  have  changed  his  idea  as  to  the 
proper  diet  for  man.  When  Adam  and  Eve  were 
created  they  were  allowed  to  eat  herbs  bearing  seed, 
and  the  fruit  of  trees.  When  they  were  turned  out 
of  Eden,  God  said  to  them  "  Thou  shalt  eat  the  herb 
of  the  field."  In  the  first  chapter  of  Genesis  the 
"  green  herb  "  was  given  for  food  to  the  beasts,  fowls 
and  creeping  things.  Upon  being  expelled  from  the 
garden,  Adam  and  Eve,  as  to  their  food,  were  put 
upon  an  equality  with  the  lower  animals.  According 
to  this,  the  ante-diluvians  were  vegetarians.  This 
may  account  for  their  wickedness  and  longevity. 

After  Noah  sacrificed,  and  God  smelled  the  sweet 
savor  ;  he  said — "  Every  moving  thing  that  liveth 
shall  be  meat  for  you,  even  as  the  green  herb  have  I 
given  you  all  things."  Afterwards  this  same  God 
changed  his  mind  again,  and  divided  the  beasts  and 
birds  into  clean  and  unclean,  and  made  it  a  crime  for 
man    to   eat   the    unclean.       Probably   food   was    so 


164  SOME  MISTAKES  OF  MOSES. 

scarce  when  Noah  was  let  out  of  the  ark  that  Jehovah 
generously  allowed  him  to  eat  anything  and  every- 
thing he  could  find. 

According  to  the  account,  God  then  made  a 
covenant  with  Noah  to  the  effect  that  he  would  not 
again  destroy  the  world  with  a  flood,  and  as  the 
attesting  witness  of  this  contract,  a  rainbow  was  set 
in  the  cloud.  This  bow  was  placed  in  the  sky  so 
that  it  might  perpetually  remind  God  of  his  promise 
and  covenant.  Without  this  visible  witness  and  re- 
minder, it  would  seem  that  Jehovah  was  liable  to 
forget  the  contract,  and  drown  the  world  again. 
Did  the  rainbow  originate  in  this  way  ?  Did  God 
put  it  in  the  cloud  simply  to  keep  his  agreement  in 
his  memory  ? 

For  me  it  is  impossible  to  believe  the  story  of  the 
deluge.  It  seems  so  cruel,  so  barbaric,  so  crude  in 
detail,  so  absurd  in  all  its  parts,  and  so  contrary  to  all 
we  know  of  law,  that  even  credulity  itself  is 
shocked. 

Many  nations  have  preserved  accounts  of  a 
deluge  in  which  all  people,  except  a  family  or  two, 
were  destroyed.  Babylon  was  certainly  a  city  before 
Jerusalem  was  founded.  Egypt  was  in  the  height  of 
her  power  when  there  were  only  seventy  Jews  in  the 


SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES;  i65 

world,  and  India  had  a  literature  before  the  name 
of  Jehovah  had  passed  the  lips  of  superstition.  An 
account  of  a  general  deluge  "was  discovered  by 
George  Smith,  translated  from  another  account  that 
was  written  about  two  thousand  years  before  Christ." 
Of  course  it  is  impossible  to  tell  how  long  the  story 
had  lived  in  the  memory  of  tradition  before  it  was 
reduced  to  writing  by  the  Babylonians.  According 
to  this  account,  which  is,  without  doubt,  much  older 
than  the  one  given  by  Moses,  Tamzi  built  a  ship  at 
the  command  of  the  god  Hea,  and  put  in  it  his  family 
and  the  beasts  of  the  field.  He  pitched  the  ship 
inside  and  outside  with  bitumen,  and  as  soon  as  it 
was  finished,  there  came  a  flood  of  rain  and 
"destroyed  all  life  from  the  face  of  the  whole  earth. 
On  the  seventh  day  there  was  a  calm,  and  the  ship 
stranded  on  the  mountain  Nizir."  Tamzi  waited  for 
seven  days  more,  and  then  let  out  a  dove.  After 
wards,  he  let  out  a  swallow,  and  that,  as  well  as  the 
dove  returned.  Then  he  let  out  a  raven,  and  as  that 
did  not  return,  he  concluded  that  the  water  had  dried 
away,  and  thereupon  left  the  ship.  Then  he  made 
an  offering  to  god,  or  the  gods,  and  "  Hea  interceded 
with  Bel,"  so  that  the  earth  might  never  again  be 
drowned. 


1 66  Some  mistakes  of  mOses. 

This  is  the  Babylonian  story,  told  without  the 
contradictions  of  the  original.  For  in  that,  it  seems, 
there  are  two  accounts,  as  well  as  in  the  bible.  Is  it 
not  a  strange  coincidence  that  there  should  be 
contradictory  accounts  mingled  in  both  the  Baby- 
lonian and  Jewish  stories  ? 

In  the  bible  there  are  two  accounts.  In  one 
account,  Noah  was  to  take  two  of  all  beasts,  birds, 
and  creeping  things  into  the  ark,  while  in  the  other, 
he  was  commanded  to  take  of  clean  beasts,  and  all 
birds  by  sevens  of  each  kind.  According  to  one 
account,  the  flood  only  lasted  one  hundred  and  fifty 
days — as  related  in  the  third  verse  of  the  eighth 
chapter ;  while  the  other  account  fixes  the  time  at 
three  hundred  and  seventy-seven  days.  Both  of 
these  accounts  cannot  be  true.  Yet  in  order  to  be 
saved,  it  is  not  sufficient  to  believe  one  of  them  — 
you  must  believe  both. 

Among  the  Egyptians  there  was  a  story  to  the 
effect  that  the  great  god  Ra  became  utterly  maddened 
with  the  people,  and  deliberately  made  up  his  mind 
that  he  would  exterminate  mankind.  Thereupon  he 
began  to  destroy,  and  continued  in  the  terrible  work 
until  blood  flowed  in  streams,  when  suddenly  he 
ceased,  and  took  an  oath  that  he  would  not  again 


SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES.  1 67 

destroy  the  human  race.  This  myth  was  probably 
thousands  of  years  old  when  Moses  was  born. 

So,  in  India,  there  was  a  fable  about  the  flood. 
A  fish  warned  Manu  that  a  flood  was  coming. 
Manu  built  a  "box"  and  the  fish  towed  it  to  a 
mountain  and  saved  all  hands. 

The  same  kind  of  stories  were  told  in  Greece, 
and  among  our  own  Indian  tribes.  At  one  time  the 
christian  pointed  to  the  fact  that  many  nations  told 
of  a  flood,  as  evidence  of  the  truth  of  the  Mosaic 
account ;  but  now,  it  having  been  shown  that  other 
accounts  are  much  older,  and  equally  reasonable, 
that  argument  has  ceased  to  be  of  any  great  value. 

It  is  probable  that  all  these  accounts  had  a 
common  origin.  They  were  likely  born  of  some- 
thing in  nature  visible  to  all  nations.  The  idea  of  a 
universal  flood,  produced  by  a  god  to  drown  the 
world  on  account  of  the  sins  of  the  people,  is  infinitely 
absurd.  The  solution  of  all  these  stories  has  been 
supposed  to  be,  the  existence  of  partial  floods  in  most 
countries ;  and  for  a  long  time  this  solution  was 
satisfactory.  But  the  fact  that  these  stories  are 
greatly  alike,  that  only  one  man  is  warned,  that  only 
one  family  is  saved,  that  a  boat  is  built,  that  birds  are 
sent  out  to  find  if  the  water  had  abated,  tend  to  show 


1 68  SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES. 

that  they  had  a  common  origin.  Admitting  that 
there  were  severe  floods  in  all  countries ;  it  certainly 
cannot  follow  that  in  each  instance  only  one  family 
would  be  saved,  or  that  the  same  story  would  in  each 
instance  be  told.  It  may  be  urged  that  the  natural 
tendency  of  man  to  exaggerate  calamities,  might 
account  for  this  agreement  in  all  the  accounts,  and  it 
must  be  admitted  that  there  is  some  force  in  the 
suggestion.  I  believe,  though,  that  the  real  origin 
of  all  these  myths  is  the  same,  and  that  it  was 
originally  an  effort  to  account  for  the  sun,  moon  and 
stars.  The  sun  and  moon  were  the  man  and  wife, 
or  the  god  and  goddess,  and  the  stars  were  their 
children.  From  a  celestial  myth,  it  became  a  ter- 
restrial one  ;  the  air,  or  ether-ocean  became  a  flood, 
produced  by  rain,  and  the  sun  moon  and  stars 
became  man,  woman  and  children. 

In  the  original  story,  the  mountain  was  the  place 
where  in  the  far  east  the  sky  was  supposed  to  touch 
the  earth,  and  it  was  there  that  the  ship  containing 
the  celestial  passengers  finally  rested  from  its  voyage. 
But  whatever  may  be  the  origin  of  the  stories  of  the 
flood,  whether  told  first  by  Hindu,  Babylonian  or 
Hebrew,  we  may  rest  perfectly  assured  that  they  are 
all  equally  false. 


XIX. 

BACCHUS  AND  BABEL. 

tt  s  soon  as  Noah  had  disembarked,  he  proceeded 
AV  to  plant  a  vineyard,  and  began  to  be  a  hus- 
bandman ;  and  when  the  grapes  were  ripe  he  made 
wine  and  drank  of  it  to  excess  ;  cursed  his  grandson, 
blessed  Shem  and  Japheth,and  after  that  lived  for 
three  hundred  and  fifty  years.  What  he  did  during 
these  three  hundred  and  fifty  years,  we  are  not  told. 
We  never  hear  of  him  again.  For  three  hundred  and 
fifty  years  he  lived  among  his  sons,  and  daughters, 
and  their  descendants.  He  must  have  been  a  vener- 
able man.  He  was  the  man  to  whom  God  had  made 
known  his  intention  of  drowning  the  world.  By  his 
efforts,  the  human  race  had  been  saved.  He  must 
have  been  acquainted  with  Methuselah  for  six  hun- 
dred years,  and  Methuselah  was  about  two  hundred 
and  forty  years  old,  when  Adam  died.  Noah  must 
himself  have  known  the  history  of  mankind,  and  must 
have  been  an  object  of  almost  infinite  interest ;   and 


I  JO  SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES. 

yet  for  three  hundred  and  fifty  years  he  is  neither 
directly  nor  indirectly  mentioned.  When  Noah  died, 
Abraham  must  have  been  more  than  fifty  years  old  ; 
and  Shem,  the  son  of  Noah,  lived  for  several 
hundred  years  after  the  death  of  Abraham  ;  and  yet 
he  is  never  mentioned.  Noah  when  he  died,  was 
the  oldest  man  in  the  whole  world  by  about  five 
hundred  years  ;  and  everybody  living  at  the  time  of 
his  death  knew  that  they  were  indebted  to  him,  and 
yet  no  account  is  given  of  his  burial.  No  monument 
was  raised  to  mark  the  spot.  This,  however,  is  no 
more  wonderful  than  the  fact  that  no  account  is 
given  of  the  death  of  Adam  or  of  Eve,  nor  of  the 
place  of  their  burial.  This  may  all  be  accounted  for 
by  the  fact  that  the  language  of  man  was  confounded 
at  the  building  of  the  tower  of  Babel,  whereby  all 
tradition  may  have  been  lost,  so  that  even  the  sons 
of  Noah  could  not  give  an  account  of  their  voyage 
in  the  ark  ;  and,  consequently,  some  one  had  to  be 
directly  inspired  to  tell  the  story,  after  new  languages 
had  been  formed. 

It  has  always  been  a  mystery  to  me  how  Adam, 
Eve,  and  the  serpent  were  taught  the  same  language- 
Where  did  they  get  it  ?  We  know  now,  that  it  re- 
quires a  great  number  of  years  to  form  a  language ; 


SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES.  Ijl 

that  it  is  of  exceedingly  slow  growth.  We  also 
know  that  by  language,  man  conveys  to  his  fellows 
the  impressions  made  upon  him  by  what  he  sees, 
hears,  smells  and  touches.  We  know  that  the 
language  of  the  savage  consists  of  a  few  sounds, 
capable  of  expressing  only  a  few  ideas  or  states  of 
the  mind,  such  as  love,  desire,  fear,  hatred,  aversion 
and  contempt.  Many  centuries  are  required  to  pro- 
duce a  language  capable  of  expressing  complex  ideas. 
It  does  not  seem  to  me  that  ideas  can  be  manu- 
factured by  a  deity  and  put  in  the  brain  of  man. 
These  ideas  must  be  the  result  of  observation  and 
experience. 

Does  anybody  believe  that  God  directly  taught  a 
lano-uaee  to  Adam  and  Eve,  or  that  he  so  made 
them  that  they,  by  intuition  spoke  Hebrew,  or  some 
language  capable  of  conveying  to  each  other  their 
thoughts  ?  How  did  the  serpent  learn  the  same 
language  ?  Did  God  teach  it  to  him,  or  did  he 
happen  to  overhear  God,  when  he  was  teaching 
Adam  and  Eve  ?  We  are  told  in  the  second  chapter 
of  Genesis  that  God  caused  all  the  animals  to  pass 
before  Adam  to  see  what  he  would  call  them.  We 
cannot  infer  from  this  that  God  named  the  animals 
and    informed    Adam    what   to    call    them.      Adam 


172  SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES. 

named  them  himself.  Where  did  he  get  his  words  ? 
We  cannot  imagine  a  man  just  made  out  of  dust, 
without  the  experience  of  a  moment,  having  the 
power  to  put  his  thoughts  in  language.  In  the  first 
place,  we  cannot  conceive  of  his  having  any  thoughts 
until  he  has  combined,  through  experience  and  obser- 
vation, the  impressions  that  nature  had  made  upon 
him  through  the  medium  of  his  senses.  We  cannot 
imagine  of  his  knowing  anything,  in  the  first  instance, 
about  different  degrees  of  heat,  nor  about  darkness,  if 
he  was  made  in  the  day-time,  nor  about  light,  if  cre- 
ated at  ni^ht,  until  the  next  morninof.  Before  a  man 
can  have  what  we  call  thoughts,  he  must  have  had 
a  little  experience.  Something  must  have  happened 
to  him  before  he  can  have  a  thought,  and  before  he 
can  express  himself  in  language.  Language  is  a 
growth,  not  a  gift.  We  account  now  for  the 
diversity  of  language  by  the  fact  that  tribes  and 
nations  have  had  different  experiences,  different 
wants,  different  surroundings,  and,  one  result  of  all 
these  differences  is,  among  other  things,  a  difference 
in  language.  Nothing  can  be  more  absurd  than  to 
account  for  the  different  languages  of  the  world  by 
saying  that  the  original  language  was  confounded  at 
the  tower  of  Babel. 


SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES.  1 73 

According  to  the  bible,  up  to  the  time  of  the 
building  of  that  tower,  the  whole  earth  was  of 
one  language  and  of  one  speech,  and  would  have 
so  remained  until  the  present  time  had  not  an 
effort  been  made  to  build  a  tower  whose  top 
should  reach  into  heaven.  Can  any  one  imagine 
what  objection  God  would  have  to  the  building  of 
such  a  tower  ?  And  how  could  the  confusion  of 
tongues  prevent  its  construction  ?  How  could 
language  be  confounded  ?  It  could  be  confounded 
only  by  the  destruction  of  memory.  Did  God 
destroy  the  memory  of  mankind  at  that  time,  and  if 
so,  how  ?  Did  he  paralyze  that  portion  of  the  brain 
presiding  over  the  organs  of  articulation,  so  that  they 
could  not  speak  the  words,  although  they  remem- 
bered them  clearly,  or  did  he  so  touch  the  brain 
that  they  could  not  hear  ?  Will  some  theologian, 
versed  in  the  machinery  of  the  miraculous,  tell  us 
in  what  way  God  confounded  the  language  of 
mankind  ? 

Why  would  the  confounding  of  the  language 
make  them  separate  ?  Why  would  they  not  stay 
together  until  they  could  understand  each  other  ? 
People  will  not  separate,  from  weakness.  When  in 
trouble  they  come  together  and  desire  the  assistance 


174  SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES. 

of  each  other.  Why,  in  this  instance,  did  they 
separate  ?  What  particular  ones  would  naturally 
come  together  if  nobody  understood  the  language 
of  any  other  person  ?  Would  it  not  have  been  just 
as  hard  to  agree  when  and  where  to  go,  without  any 
language  to  express  the  agreement,  as  to  go  on  with 
the  building  of  the  tower  ? 

Is  it  possible  that  any  one  now  believes  that  the 
whole  world  would  be  of  one  speech  had  the  lan- 
guage not  been  confounded  at  Babel  ?  Do  we  not 
know  that  every  word  was  suggested  in  some  way 
by  the  experience  of  men  ?  Do  we  not  know  that 
words  are  continually  dying,  and  continually  being 
born  ;  that  every  language  has  its  cradle  and  its 
cemetery — its  buds,  its  blossoms,  its  fruits  and  its 
withered  leaves?  Man  has  loved,  enjoyed,  hated, 
suffered  and  hoped,  and  all  words  have  been  born  of 
these  experiences. 

Why  did  "  the  Lord  come  down  to  see  the  city 
and  the  tower  ?  "  Could  he  not  see  them  from 
where  he  lived  or  from  where  he  was  ?  Where  did 
he  come  down  from  ?  Did  he  come  in  the  daytime, 
or  in  the  night  ?  We  are  taught  now  that  God  is 
everywhere  ;  that  he  inhabits  immensity  ;  that  he  is 
in  every  atom,  and  in  every  star.     If  this  is  true, 


SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES.  1/5 

why  did    he  "  come   down   to  see   the  city  and  the 
tower  ?  "      Will  some  theologian  explain  this  ? 

After  all,  is  it  not  much  easier  and  altogether 
more  reasonable  to  say  that  Moses  was  mistaken, 
that  he  knew  little  of  tne  science  of  language,  and 
that  he  guessed  a  great  deal  more  than  he  investi- 
gated ? 


XX 

FAITH    IN    FILTH. 

No  light  whatever  is  shed  upon  what  passed  in 
the  world  after  the  confounding  of  language 
at  Babel,  until  the  birth  of  Abraham.  But,  before 
speaking  of  the  history  of  the  Jewish  people,  it  may 
be  proper  for  me  to  say  that  many  things  are  re- 
counted in  Genesis,  and  other  books  attributed  to 
Moses,  of  which  I  do  not  wish  to  speak.  There  are 
many  pages  of  these  books  unfit  to  read,  many 
stories  not  calculated,  in  my  judgment,  to  improve 
the  morals  of  mankind.  I  do  not  wish  even  to  call 
the  attention  of  my  readers  to  these  things,  except  in 
a  general  way.  It  is  to  be  hoped  that  the  time  will 
come  when  such  chapters  and  passages  as  cannot  be 
read  without  leaving  the  blush  of  shame  upon  the 
cheek  of  modesty,  will  be  left  out,  and  not  published 
as  a  part  of  the  bible.  If  there  is  a  God,  it  certainly 
is  blasphemous  to  attribute  to  him  the  authorship  of 


SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES.  177 

pages  too  obscene,  beastly  and  vulgar  to  be  read  in 
the  presence  of  men  and  women. 

The  believers  in  the  bible  are  loud  in  their 
denunciation  of  what  they  are  pleased  to  call  the 
immoral  literature  of  the  world  ;  and  yet  few  books 
have  been  published  containing  more  moral  filth 
than  this  inspired  word  of  God.  These  stories  are 
not  redeemed  by  a  single  flash  of  wit  or  humor. 
They  never  rise  above  the  dull  details  of  stupid  vice. 
For  one,  I  cannot  afford  to  soil  my  pages  with 
extracts  from  them  ;  and  all  such  portions  of  the 
Scriptures  I  leave  to  be  examined,  written  upon,  and 
explained  by  the  clergy.  Clergymen  may  know 
some  way  by  which  they  can  extract  honey  from 
these  flowers.  Until  these  passages  are  expunged 
from  the  Old  Testament,  it  is  not  a  fit  book  to  be 
read  by  either  old  or  young.  It  contains  pages 
that  no  minister  in  the  United  States  would  read  to 
his  congregation  for  any  reWard  whatever.  There 
are  chapters  that  no  gentleman  would  read  in  the 
presence  of  a  lady.  There  are  chapters  that  no 
father  would  read  to  his  child.  There  are  narratives 
utterly  unfit  to  be  told  ;  and  the  time  will  come 
when   mankind  will  wonder  that  such  a  book  was 

ever  called  inspired. 
12 


1 78  SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES. 

I  know  that  in  many  books  besides  the  bible, 
there  are  immodest  lines.  Some  of  the  greatest 
writers  have  soiled  their  pages  with  indecent  words. 
We  account  for  this  by  saying  that  the  authors  were 
human ;  that  they  catered  to  the  taste  and  spirit  of 
their  times.  We  make  excuses,  but  at  the  same  time 
regret  that  in  their  works  they  left  an  impure  word. 
But  what  shall  we  say  of  God  ?  Is  it  possible  that  a 
being  of  infinite  purity — the  author  of  modesty, 
would  smirch  the  pages  of  his  book  with  stories 
lewd,  licentious  and  obscene  ?  If  God  is  the  author 
of  the  bible,  it  is,  of  course,  the  standard  by  which 
all  other  books  can,  and  should  be  measured.  If  the 
bible  is  not  obscene,  what  book  is  ?  Why  should 
men  be  imprisoned  simply  for  imitating  God  ?  The 
christian  world  should  never  say  another  word 
against  immoral  books  until  it  makes  the  inspired 
volume  clean.  These  vile  and  filthy  things  -were  not 
written  for  the  purpose  of  conveying  and  enforcing 
moral  truth,  but  seem  to  have  been  written  because 
the  author  loved  an  unclean  thine.  There  is  no 
moral  depth  below  that  occupied  by  the  writer  or 
publisher  of  obscene  books,  that  stain  with  lust,  the 
loving  heart  of  youth.  Such  men  should  be  im- 
prisoned and  their  books  destroyed.     The  literature 


SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES.  1 79 

of  the  world  should  be  rendered  decent,  and  no  book 
should  be  published  that  cannot  be  read  by,  and  in 
the  hearing  of  the  best  and  purest  people.  But  as 
long"  as  the  bible  is  considered  as  the  work  of  God, 
it  will  be  hard  to  make  all  men  too  good  and  pure 
to  imitate  it ;  and  as  long  as  it  is  imitated  there  will 
be  vile  and  filthy  books.  The  literature  of  our 
country  will  not  be  sweet  and  clean  until  the  bible 
ceases  to  be  regarded  as  the  production  of  a  god. 

We  are  continually  told  that  the  bible  is  the  very 
foundation  of  modesty  and  morality ;  while  many  of 
its  pages  are  so  immodest  and  immoral  that  a 
minister,  for  reading  them  in  the  pulpit,  would  be 
instantly  denounced  as  an  unclean  wretch.  Every 
woman  would  leave  the  church,  and  if  the  men 
stayed,  it  would  be  for  the  purpose  of  chastising  the 
minister. 

Is  there  any  saving  grace  in  hypocrisy  ?  Will 
men  become  clean  in  speech  by  believing  that  God 
is  unclean  ?  Would  it  not  be  far  better  to  admit 
that  the  bible  was  written  by  barbarians  in  a 
barbarous,  coarse  and  vulgar  age  ?  Would  it  not  be 
safer  to  charge  Moses  with  vulgarity,  instead  of  God? 
Is  it  not  altogether  more  probable  that  some  ignorant 
Hebrew  would  write  the  vulgar  words  ?     The  chris- 


I  SO  SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES. 

tians  tell  me  that  God  is  the  author  of  these  vile  and 
stupid  things?  I  have  examined  the  question  to  the 
best  of  my  ability,  and  as  to  God  my  verdict  is  : — 
Not  guilty.     Faith  should  not  rest  in  filth. 

Every  foolish  and  immodest  thing  should  be 
expunged  from  the  bible.  Let  us  keep  the  good. 
Let  us  preserve  every  great  and  splendid  thought, 
every  wise  and  prudent  maxim,  every  just  law,  every 
elevated  idea,  and  every  word  calculated  to  make 
man  nobler  and  purer,  and  let  us  have  the  courage  to 
throw  the  rest  away.  The  souls  of  children  should 
not  be  stained  and  soiled.  The  charming  instincts 
of  youth  should  not  be  corrupted  and  defiled.  The 
girls  and  boys  should  not  be  taught  that  unclean 
words  were  uttered  by  "inspired"  lips.  Teach  them 
that  these  words  were  born  of  savagery  and  lust. 
Teach  them  that  the  unclean  is  the  unholy,  and  that 
only  the  pure  is  sacred. 


XXI. 

THE  HEBREWS. 

After  language  had  been  confounded  and  the 
people  scattered,  there  appeared  in  the  land 
of  Canaan  a  tribe  of  Hebrews  ruled  by  a  chief  or 
sheik  called  Abraham.  They  had  a  few  cattle,  lived 
in  tents,  practiced  polygamy,  wandered  from  place  to 
place,  and  were  the  only  folks  in  the  whole  world 
to  whom  God  paid  the  slightest  attention.  At  this 
time  there  were  hundreds  of  cities  in  India  filled  with 
temples  and  palaces ;  millions  of  Egyptians  wor- 
shiped Isis  and  Osiris,  and  had  covered  their  land 
with  marvelous  monuments  of  industry,  power  and 
skill.  But  these  civilizations  were  entirely  neglected 
by  the  Deity,  his  whole  attention  being  taken  up 
with  Abraham  and  his  family. 

It  seems,  from  the  account,  that  God  and 
Abraham  were  intimately  acquainted,  and  conversed 
frequently  upon  a  great  variety  of  subjects.  By  the 
twelfth  chapter  of  Genesis  it  appears  that  he  made 


152  SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES. 


the  following  promises  to  Abraham.  "  I  will  make 
of  thee  a  great  nation,  and  I  will  bless  thee,  and 
make  thy  name  great  :  and  thou  shalt  be  a  blessing. 
And  I  will  bless  them  that  bless  thee,  and  curse  him 
that  curseth  thee." 

After  receiving  this  communication  from  the 
Almighty,  Abraham  went  into  the  land  of  Canaan, 
and  again  God  appeared  to  him  and  told  him  to  take 
a  heifer  three  years  old,  a  goat  of  the  same  age,  a 
sheep  of  equal  antiquity,  a  turtle  dove  and  a  young 
pigeon.  Whereupon  Abraham  killed  the  animals 
"  and  divided  them  in  the  midst,  and  laid  each  piece 
one  against  another."  And  it  came  to  pass  that 
when  the  sun  went  down  and  it  was  dark,  behold  a 
smoking  furnace  and  a  burning  lamp  that  passed 
between  the  raw  and  bleeding  meat.  The  killine  of 
these  animals  was  a  preparation  for  receiving  a  visit 
from  God.  Should  an  American  missionary  in 
Central  Africa  find  a  negro  chief  surrounded  by  a 
butchered  heifer,  a  goat  and  a  sheep,  with  which  to 
receive  a  communication  from  the  infinite  God,  my 
opinion  is,  that  the  missionary  would  regard  the 
proceeding  as  the  direct  result  of  savagery.  And  if 
the  chief  insisted  that  he  had  seen  a  smoking  furnace 
and  a  burning  lamp  going  up  and  down  between  the 


SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES.  1 83 


pieces  of  meat,  the  missionary  would  certainly  con- 
clude that  the  chief  was  not  altogether  risrht  in  his 
mind. 

If  the  bible  is  true,  this  same  God  told  Abraham 
to  take  and  sacrifice  his  only  son,  or  rather  the  only 
son  of  his  wife,  and  a  murder  would  have  been 
committed  had  not  God,  just  at  the  right  moment, 
directed  him  to  stay  his  hand  and  take  a  sheep 
instead. 

God  made  a  great  number  of  promises  to 
Abraham,  but  few  of  them  were  ever  kept.  He 
agreed  to  make  him  the  father  of  a  great  nation,  but 
he  did  not.  He  solemnly  promised  to  give  him  a 
great  country,  including  all  the  land  between  the 
river  of  Egypt  and  the  Euphrates,  but  he  did  not. 

In  due  time  Abraham  passed  away,  and  his  son 
Isaac  took  his  place  at  the  head  of  the  tribe.  Then 
came  Jacob,  who  "  watered  stock "  and  enriched 
himself  with  the  spoil  of  Laban.  Joseph  was  sold 
into  Egypt  by  his  jealous  brethren,  where  he  became 
one  of  the  chief  men  of  the  kingdom,  and  in  a  few 
years  his  father  and  brothers  left  their  own  country 
and  settled  in  Egypt.  At  this  time  there  were 
seventy  Hebrews  in  the  world,  counting  Joseph  and 
his  children.     They  remained  in  Egypt  two  hundred 


I  §4  SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES. 

and  fifteen  years.  It  is  claimed  by  some  that  they 
were  in  that  country  for  four  hundred  and  thirty 
years.  This  is  a  mistake.  Josephus  says  they  were 
in  Egypt  two  hundred  and  fifteen  years,  and  this 
statement  is  sustained  by  the  best  biblical  scholars 
of  all  denominations.  According  to  the  17th  verse 
of  the  3rd  chapter  of  Galatians,  it  was  four  hundred 
and  thirty  years  from  the  time  the  promise  was  made 
to  Abraham  to  the  giving  of  the  law,  and  as  the 
Hebrews  did  not  go  to  Egypt  for  two  hundred  and 
fifteen  years  after  the  making  of  the  promise  to 
Abraham,  they  could  in  no  event  have  been  in  Egypt 
more  than  two  hundred  and  fifteen  years.  In  our 
bible  the  40th  verse  of  the  12th  chapter  of  Exodus, 
is  as  follows  :— 

"  Now  the  sojourning  of  the  children  of  Israel, 
who  dwelt  in  Egypt,  was  four  hundred  and  thirty 
years." 

This  passage  does  not  say  that  the  sojourning 
was  all  done  in  Egypt ;  neither  does  it  say  that  the 
children  of  Israel  dwelt  in  Egypt  four  hundred  and 
thirty  years  ;  but  it  does  say  that  the  sojourning  of 
the  children  of  Israel  who  dwelt  in  Egypt  was  four 
hundred  and  thirty  years.  The  Vatican  copy  of  the 
Septuagint  renders  the  same  passage  as  follows  : — 


SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES.  1 85 

"The  sojourning  of  the  children  of  Israel  which 
they  sojourned  in  Egypt,  and  in  the  land  of  Canaan, 
was  four  hundred  and  thirty  years." 

The  Alexandrian  version  says  : — "The  sojourning 
of  the  children  of  Israel  which  they  and  their  fathers 
sojourned  in  Egypt,  and  in  the  land  of  Canaan,  was 
four  hundred  and  thirty  years." 

And  in  the  Samaritan  bible  we  have  : — "  The 
sojourning  of  the  children  of  Israel  and  of  their 
fathers  which  they  sojourned  in  the  land  of  Canaan, 
and  in  the  land  of  Egypt,  was  four  hundred  and 
thirty  years." 

There  were  seventy  souls  when  they  went  down 
into  Egypt,  and  they  remained  two  hundred  and 
fifteen  years,  and  at  the  end  of  that  time  they  had 
increased  to  about  three  million.  How  do  we  know 
that  there  were  three  million  at  the  end  of  two 
hundred  and  fifteen  years  ?  We  know  it  because  we 
are  informed  by  Moses  that  "there  were  six  hundred 
thousand  men  of  war."  Now,  to  each  man  of  war, 
there  must  have  been  at  least  five  other  people.  In 
every  State  in  this  Union  there  will  be  to  each  voter, 
five  other  persons  at  least,  and  we  all  know  that 
there  are  always  more  voters  than  men  of  war.  If 
there  were  six  hundred  thousand  men  of  war,  there 


I  86  SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES. 

must  have  been  a  population  of  at  least  three  million. 
Is  it  possible  that  seventy  people  could  increase  to 
that  extent  in  two  hundred  and  fifteen  years  ?  You 
may  say  that  it  was  a  miracle ;  but  what  need  was 
there  of  working-  a  miracle  ?  Why  should  God 
miraculously  increase  the  number  of  slaves  ?  If  he 
wished  miraculously  to  increase  the  population,  why 
did  he  not  wait  until  the  people  were  free  ? 

In  1776,  we  had  in  the  American  Colonies  about 
three  millions  of  people.  In  one  hundred  years  we 
doubled  four  times :  that  is  to  say,  six,  twelve, 
twenty-four,  forty-eight  million, — our  present  popu- 
lation. 

We  must  not  forget  that  during  all  these  years 
there  has  been  pouring  into  our  country  a  vast  stream 
of  emigration,  and  that  this,  taken  in  connection  with 
the  fact  that  our  country  is  productive  beyond  all 
others,  gave  us  only  four  doubles  in  one  hundred 
years.  Admitting  that  the  Hebrews  increased  as 
rapidly  without  emigration  as  we,  in  this  country, 
have  with  it,  we  will  give  to  them  four  doubles  each 
century,  commencing  with  seventy  people,  and  they 
would  have,  at  the  end  of  two  hundred  years,  a 
population  of  seventeen  thousand  nine  hundred  and 
twenty.     Giving  them   another  double  for  the  odd 


SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES;  i8/ 

fifteen  years  and  there  would  be,  provided  no  deaths 
had  occurred,  thirty-five  thousand  eight  hundred  and 
forty  people.  And  yet  we  are  told  that  instead  of 
having  this  number,  they  had  increased  to  such  an 
extent  that  they  had  six  hundred  thousand  men  of 
war :  that  is  to  say,  a  population  of  more  than  three 
millions! 

Every  sensible  man  knows  that  this  account  is 
not,  and  cannot  be  true.  We  know  that  seventy 
people  could  not  increase  to  three  million  in  two 
hundred  and  fifteen  years. 

About  this  time  the  Hebrews  took  a  census,  and 
found  that  there  were  twenty-two  thousand  two 
hundred  and  seventy-three  first  born  males.  It  is 
reasonable  to  suppose  that  there  were  about  as  many 
first  born  females.  This  would  make  forty-four 
thousand  five  hundred  and  forty-six  first  born 
children.  Now,  there  must  have  been  about  as 
many  mothers  as  there  were  first  born  children.  If 
there  were  only  about  forty-five  thousand  mothers 
and  three  millions  of  people,  the  mothers  must  have 
had  on  an  average  about  sixty-six  children  apiece. 

At  this  time,  the  Hebrews  were  slaves,  and  had 
been  for  two  hundred  and  fifteen  years.  A  little 
while    before,    an    order    had    been     made    by    the 


SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES. 


Egyptians  that  all  the  male  children  of  the  Hebrews 
should  be  killed.  One,  contrary  to  this  order,  was 
saved  in  an  ark  made  of  bullrushes  daubed  with 
slime.  This  child  was  found  by  the  daughter  of 
Pharaoh,  and  was  adopted,  it  seems,  as  her  own, 
and,  may  be,  was.  He  grew  to  be  a  man,  sided 
with  the  Hebrews,  killed  an  Egyptian  that  was 
smiting  a  slave,  hid  the  body  in  the  sand,  and  fled 
from  Egypt  to  the  land  of  Midian,  became  acquainted 
with  a  priest  who  had  seven  daughters,  took  the 
side  of  the  daughters  against  the  ill-mannered  shep- 
herds of  that  country,  and  married  Zipporah,  one  of 
the  girls,  and  became  a  shepherd  for  her  father. 
Afterward,  while  tending  his  flock,  the  Lord  appeared 
to  him  in  a  burning  bush,  and  commanded  him  to 
go  to  the  king  of  Egypt  and  demand  from  him  the 
liberation  of  the  Hebrews.  In  order  to  convince 
him  that  the  something  burning  in  the  bush  was 
actually  God,  the  rod  in  his  hand  was  changed  into 
a  serpent,  which,  upon  being  caught  by  the  tail, 
became  again  a  rod.  Moses  was  also  told  to  put 
his  hand  in  his  bosom,  and  when  he  took  it  out  it 
was  as  leprous  as  snow.  Quite  a  number  of  strange 
things  were  performed,  and  others  promised.  Moses 
then    agreed   to   go   back    to    Egypt    provided    his 


SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES.  1 89 

brother  could  go  with  him.  Whereupon  the  Lord 
appeared  to  Aaron,  and  directed  him  to  meet  Moses 
in  the  wilderness.  They  met  at  the  mount  of  God, 
went  to  Egypt,  gathered  together  all  the  elders  of 
the  children  of  Israel,  spake  all  the  words  which  God 
had  spoken  unto  Moses,  and  did  all  the  signs  in  the 
sight  of  the  people.  The  Israelites  believed,  bowed 
their  heads  and  worshiped ;  and  Moses  and  Aaron 
went  in  and  told  their  message  to  Pharaoh  the 
king. 


XXII. 

THE  PLAGUES. 

Three  millions  of  people  were  in  slavery.  They 
were  treated  with  the  utmost  rigor,  and  so 
fearful  were  their  masters  that  they  might,  in  time, 
increase  in  numbers  sufficient  to  avenge  themselves, 
that  they  took  from  the  arms  of  mothers  all  the  male 
children  and  destroyed  them.  If  the  account  given 
is  true,  the  Egyptians  were  the  most  cruel,  heartless 
and  infamous  people  of  which  history  gives  any 
record.  God  finally  made  up  his  mind  to  free  the 
Hebrews  ;  and  for  the  accomplishment  of  this  pur- 
pose he  sent,  as  his  agents,  Moses  and  Aaron,  to 
the  king  of  Egypt.  In  order  that  the  king  might 
know  that  these  men  had  a  divine  mission,  God 
gave  Moses  the  power  of  changing  a  stick  into  a 
serpent,  and  water  into  blood.  Moses  and  Aaron 
went  before  the  kinor  stating  that  the  Lord  God  of 
Israel  ordered  the  King  of  Egypt  to  let  the  Hebrews 


SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES.  1 9 1 

go  that  they  might  hold  a  feast  with  God  in  the 
wilderness.  Thereupon  Pharaoh,  the  king,  enquired 
who  the  Lord  was,  at  the  same  time  stating  that  he 
had  never  made  his  acquaintance,  and  knew  nothing 
about  him.  To  this  they  replied  that  the  God  of  the 
Hebrews  had  met  with  them,  and  they  asked  to  go  a 
three  days  journey  into  the  desert  and  sacrifice  unto 
this  God,  fearing  that  if  they  did  not  he  would  fall 
upon  them  with  pestilence  or  the  sword.  This 
interview  seems  to  have  hardened  Pharaoh,  for  lje 
ordered  the  tasks  of  the  children  of  Israel  to  be 
increased  ;  so  that  the  only  effect  of  the  first  appeal 
was  to  render  still  worse  the  condition  of  the 
Hebrews.  Thereupon,  Moses  returned  unto  the 
Lord  and  said  "  Lord,  wherefore  hast  thou  so  evil 
entreated  this  people  ?  Why  is  it  that  thou  hast 
sent  me  ?  For  since  I  came  to  Pharaoh  to  speak  in 
thy  name  he  hath  done  evil  to  this  people  ;  neither 
hast  thou  delivered  thy  people  at  all." 

Apparently  stung  by  this  reproach,  God  an- 
swered : — 

"  Now  shalt  thou  see  what  I  will  do  to  Pharoah  ; 
for  with  a  strong  hand  shall  he  let  them  go  ;  and 
with  a  strong  hand  shall  he  drive  them  out  of  his 
land." 


192  SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES. 

God  then  recounts  the  fact  that  he  had  appeared 
unto  Abraham,  Isaac  and  Jacob,  that  he  had  estab- 
lished a  covenant  with  them  to  give  them  the  land 
of  Canaan,  that  he  had  heard  the  groanings  of  the 
children  of  Israel  in  Egyptian  bondage  ;  that  their 
groanings  had  put  him  in  mind  of  his  covenant,  and 
that  he  had  made  up  his  mind  to  redeem  the  children 
of  Israel  with  a  stretched  out  arm  and  with  srreat 
judgments.  Moses  then  spoke  to  the  children  of 
Isjael  again,  but  they  would  listen  to  him  no  more. 
His  first  effort  in  their  behalf  had  simply  doubled 
their  trouble  and  they  seemed  to  have  lost  confidence 
in  his  power.  Thereupon  Jehovah  promised  Moses 
that  he  would  make  him  a  god  unto  Pharaoh,  and 
that  Aaron  should  be  his  prophet,  but  at  the  same 
time  informed  him  that  his  message  would  be  of  no 
avail ;  that  he  would  harden  the  heart  of  Pharaoh  so 
that  he  would  not  listen  ;  that  he  would  so  harden 
his  heart  that  he  might  have  an  excuse  for  destroy- 
ing the  Egyptians.  Accordingly,  Moses  and  Aaron 
again  went  before  Pharaoh.  Moses  said  to  Aaron  ; 
— "  Cast  down  your  rod  before  Pharaoh,"  which  he 
did,  and  it  became  a  serpent.  Then  Pharaoh  not  in 
the  least  surprised,  called  for  his  wise  men  and  his 
sorcerers,  and   they   threw   down    their    rods    and 


SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES.  193 

changed  them  into  serpents.  The  serpent  that  had 
been  changed  from  Aaron's  rod  was,  at  this  time 
crawling  upon  the  floor,  and  it  proceeded  to  swallow 
the  serpents  that  had  been  produced  by  the 
magicians  of  Egypt.  What  became  of  these  serpents 
that  were  swallowed,  whether  they  turned  back  into 
sticks  again,  is  not  stated.  Can  we  believe  that  the 
stick  was  changed  into  a  real  living  serpent,  or  did 
it  assume  simply  the  appearance  of  a  serpent  ?  If  it 
bore  only  the  appearance  of  a  serpent  it  was  a 
deception,  and  could  not  rise  above  the  dignity  of 
legerdemain.  Is  it  necessary  to  believe  that  God 
is  a  kind  of  prestigiator — a  sleight-of-hand  per- 
former, a  magician  or  sorcerer  ?  Can  it  be  possible 
that  an  infinite  being  would  endeavor  to  secure  the 
liberation  of  a  race  by  performing  a  miracle  that 
could  be  equally  performed  by  the  sorcerers  and 
magicians  of  a  barbarian  king-  ? 

Not  one  word  was  said  by  Moses  or  Aaron  as  to 
the  wickedness  of  depriving  a  human  being  of  his 
liberty.  Not  a  word  was  said  in  favor  of  liberty. 
Not  the  slightest  intimation  that  a  human  being  was 
justly  entitled  to  the  product  of  his  own  labor.  Not 
a  word  about  the  cruelty  of  masters  who  would 
destroy  even  the  babes  of  slave  mothers.     It  seems 

13 


194  SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES. 

to  me  wonderful  that  this  God  did  not  tell  the  king 
of  Egypt  that  no  nation  could  enslave  another,  with- 
out also  enslaving  itself;  that  it  was  impossible  to 
put  a  chain  around  the  limbs  of  a  slave,  without 
putting  manacles  upon  the  brain  of  the  master. 
Why  did  he  not  tell  him  that  a  nation  founded  upon 
slavery  could  not  stand?  Instead  of  declaring  these 
things,  instead  of  appealing  to  justice,  to  mercy  and 
to  liberty,  he  resorted  to  feats  of  jugglery.  Suppose 
we  wished  to  make  a  treaty  with  a  barbarous  nation, 
and  the  president  should  employ  a  sleight-of-hand 
performer  as  envoy  extraordinary,  and  instruct  him, 
that  when  he  came  into  the  presence  of  the  savage 
monarch,  he  should  cast  down  an  umbrella  or  a 
walking  stick,  which  would  change  into  a  lizard  or 
a  turtle ;  what  would  we  think  ?  Would  we  not 
regard  such  a  performance  as  beneath  the  dignity 
even  of  a  president  ?  And  what  would  be  our 
feelings  if  the  savage  king  sent  for  his  sorcerers  and 
had  them  perform  the  same  feat  ?  If  such  things 
would  appear  puerile  and  foolish  in  the  president  of 
a  great  republic,  what  shall  be  said  when  they  were 
resorted  to  by  the  creator  of  all  worlds  ?  How 
small,  how  contemptible  such  a  God  appears  ! 
Pharaoh,    it    seems,    took   about    this   view   of  the 


SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES.  19$ 

matter,  and  he  would   not  be   persuaded  that  such 
tricks  were  performed  by  an  infinite  being. 

Again,  Moses  and  Aaron  came  before  Pharaoh 
as  he  was  going  to  the  river's  bank,  and  the  same 
rod  which  had  changed  to  a  serpent,  and,  by  this 
time  changed  back,  was  taken  by  Aaron,  who,  in  the 
presence  of  Pharaoh,  smote  the  water  of  the  river, 
which  was  immediately  turned  to  blood,  as  well  as 
all  the  water  in  all  the  streams,  ponds,  and  pools, 
as  well  as  all  water  in  vessels  of  wood  and  vessels  of 
stone  in  the  entire  land  of  Egypt.  As  soon  as  all 
the  waters  in  Egypt  had  been  turned  into  blood,  the. 
magicians  of  that  country  did  the  same  with  their 
enchantments.  We  are  not  informed  where  they 
got  the  water  to  turn  into  blood,  since  all  the  water 
in  Egypt  had  already  been  so  changed.  It  seems 
from  the  account  that  the  fish  in  the  Nile  died,  and 
the  river  emitted  a  stench,  and  there  was  not  a  drop 
of  water  in  the  land  of  Egypt  that  had  not  been 
changed  into  blood.  In  consequence  of  this,  the 
Egyptians  digged  "  around  about  the  river "  for 
water  to  drink.  Can  we  believe  this  story  ?  Is  it 
necessary  to  salvation  to  admit  that  all  the  rivers, 
pools,  ponds  and  lakes  of  a  country  were  changed 
into  blood,  in  order  that  a  king  might  be  induced  to 


I96  SOME  MISTAKES  OF  MOSES. 

allow  the  children  of  Israel  the  privilege  of  going 
a  three  days  journey  into  the  wilderness  to  make 
sacrifices  to  their  God  ? 

It  seems  from  the  account  that  Pharaoh  was  told 
that  the  God  of  the  Hebrews  would,  if  he  refused  to 
let  the  Israelites  go,  change  all  the  waters  of  Egypt 
into  blood,  and  that,  upon  his  refusal,  they  were  so 
changed.  This  had,  however,  no  influence  upon 
him,  for  the  reason  that  his  own  magicians  did  the 
same.  It  does  not  appear  that  Moses  and  Aaron 
expressed  the  least  surprise  at  the  success  of  the 
Egyptian  sorcerers.  At  that  time  it  was  believed 
that  each  nation  had  its  own  god.  The  only  claim 
that  Moses  and  Aaron  made  for  their  God  was,  that 
he  was  the  greatest  and  most  powerful  of  all  the 
gods,  and  that  with  anything  like  an  equal  chance  he 
could  vanquish  the  deity  of  any  other  nation. 

After  the  waters  were  changed  to  blood  Moses 
and  Aaron  waited  for  seven  days.  At  the  end  of 
that  time  God  told  Moses  to  again  go  to  Pharaoh 
and  demand  the  release  of  his  people,  and  to  inform 
him  that,  if  he  refused,  God  would  strike  all  the 
borders  of  Egypt  with  frogs.  That  he  would  make 
frogs  so  plentiful  that  they  would  go  into  the  houses 
of  Pharaoh,  into  his  bedchamber,  upon  his  bed,  into 


SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES.  19/ 

the  houses  of  his  servants,  upon  his  people,  into 
their  ovens,  and  even  into  their  kneading  troughs. 
This  threat  had  no  effect  whatever  upon  Pharaoh. 
And  thereupon  Aaron  stretched  out  his  hand  over 
the  waters  of  Egypt,  and  the  frogs  came  up  and 
covered  the  land.  The  magicians  of  Egypt  did  the 
same,  and  with  their  enchantments  brought  more 
frogs  upon  the  land  of  Egypt. 

These  magicians  do  not  seem  to  have  been 
original  in  their  ideas,  but  so  far  as  imitation  is  con- 
cerned, were  perfect  masters  of  their  art.  The  frogs 
seem  to  have  made  such  an  impression  upon  Pharaoh 
that  he  sent  for  Moses  and  asked  him  to  entreat  the 
Lord  that  he  would  take  away  the  frogs.  Moses 
agreed  to  remove  them  from  the  houses  and  the 
land,  and  allow  them  to  remain  only  in  the  rivers. 
Accordingly  the  frogs  died  out  of  the  houses,  and  out 
of  the  villages,  and  out  of  the  fields,  and  the  people 
gathered  them  together  in  heaps.  As  soon  as  the 
frogs  had  left  the  houses  and  fields,  the  heart  of 
Pharaoh  became  again  hardened,  and  he  refused  to 
let  the  people  go. 

Aaron  then,  according  to  the  command  of  God. 
stretched  out  his  hand,  holding  the  rod,  and  smote 
the  dust  of  the  earth,  and  it  became  lice  in  man  and 


I98  SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES. 


in  beast,  and  all  the  dust  became  lice  throughout  the 
land  of  Egypt.  Pharaoh  again  sent  for  his  magicians, 
and  they  sought  to  do  the  same  with  their  enchant- 
ments, but  they  could  not.  Whereupon  the  sor- 
cerers said  unto  Pharaoh  :  "  This  is  the  finger  of 
God." 

Notwithstanding  this,  however,  Pharaoh  refused 
to  let  the  Hebrews  go.  God  then  caused  a  grievous 
swarm  of  flies  to  come  into  the  house  of  Pharaoh 
and  into  his  servants'  houses,  and  into  all  the  land  of 
Egypt,  to  such  an  extent  that  the  whole  land  was 
corrupted  by  reason  of  the  flies.  But  into  that  part 
of  the  country  occupied  by  the  children  of  Israel 
there  came  no  flies.  Thereupon  Pharaoh  sent  for 
Moses  and  Aaron  and  said  to  them  :  "  Go,  and 
sacrifice  to  your  God  in  this  land."  They  were  not 
willing  to  sacrifice  in  Egypt,  and  asked  permission 
to  go  on  a  journey  of  three  days  into  the  wilderness. 
To  this  Pharaoh  acceded,  and  in  consideration  of 
this  Moses  agreed  to  use  his  influence  with  the  Lord 
to  induce  him  to  send  the  flies  out  of  the  country. 
He  accordingly  told  the  Lord  of  the  bargain  he  had 
made  with  Pharaoh,  and  the  Lord  agreed  to  the 
compromise,  and  removed  the  flies  from  Pharaoh  and 
from    his    servants  and  from  his   people,  and  there 


SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES.  1 99 

remained  not  a  single  fly  in  the  land  of  Egypt.  As 
soon  as  the  flies  were  gone,  Pharaoh  again  changed 
his  mind,  and  concluded  not  to  permit  the  children  of 
Israel  to  depart.  The  Lord  then  directed  Moses  to 
2fo  to  Pharaoh  and  tell  him  that  if  he  did  not  allow 
the  children  of  Israel  to  depart,  he  would  destroy  his 
cattle,  his  horses,  his  camels  and  his  sheep  ;  that 
these  animals  would  be  afflicted  with  a  grievous 
disease,  but  that  the  animals  belonging  to  the 
Hebrews  should  not  be  so  afflicted.  Moses  did  as 
he  was  bid.  On  the  next  day  all  the  cattle  of  Egypt 
died  ;  that  is  to  say,  all  the  horses,  all  the  asses,  all 
the  camels,  all  the  oxen  and  all  the  sheep  ;  but  of 
the  animals  owned  by  the  Israelites,  not  one  perished. 
This  disaster  had  no  effect  upon  Pharaoh,  and  he  still 
refused  to  let  the  children  of  Israel  go.  The  Lord 
then  told  Moses  and  Aaron  to  take  some  ashes 
out  of  a  furnace,  and  told  Moses  to  sprinkle  them 
toward  the  heavens  in  the  sight  of  Pharaoh ;  saying 
that  the  ashes  should  become  small  dust  in  all  the 
land  of  Egypt,  and  should  be  a  boil  breaking  forth 
with  blains  upon  man  and  upon  beast  throughout  all 
the  land. 

How  these  boils  breaking  out  with  blains,  upon 
cattle  that  were  already  dead,  should  affect  Pharaoh, 


200  SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES. 


is  a  little  hard  to  understand.  It  must  not  be  for- 
gotten that  all  the  cattle  and  all  beasts  had  died  with 
the  murrain  before  the  boils  had  broken  out. 

This  was  a  most  decisive  victory  for  Moses  and 
Aaron.  The  boils  were  upon  the  magicians  to  that 
extent  that  they  could  not  stand  before  Moses.  But 
it  had  no  effect  upon  Pharaoh,  who  seems  to  have 
been  a  man  of  great  firmness.  The  Lord  then 
instructed  Moses  to  get  up  early  in  the  morning  and 
tell  Pharaoh  that  he  would  stretch  out  his  hand  and 
smite  his  people  with  a  pestilence,  and  would,  on  the 
morrow,  cause  it  to  rain  a  very  grievous  hail,  such 
as  had  never  been  known  in  the  land  of  Egypt.  He 
also  told  Moses  to  give  notice,  so  that  they  might 
get  all  the  cattle  that  were  in  the  fields  under  cover. 
It  must  be  remembered  that  all  these  cattle  had 
recently  died  of  the  murrain,  and  their  dead  bodies 
had  been  covered  with  boils  and  blains.  This, 
however,  had  no  effect,  and  Moses  stretched  forth 
his  hand  toward  heaven,  and  the  Lord  sent  thunder, 
and  hail  and  lightning,  and  fire  that  ran  along  the 
-round,  and  the  hail  fell  upon  all  the  land  of  Egypt, 
and  all  that  were  in  the  fields,  both  man  and 
beast,  were  smitten,  and  the  hail  smote  every 
herb   of  the   field,   and    broke   every   tree   of   the 


SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES.  201 

country  except  that  portion  inhabited  by  the  children 
of  Israel ;   there,  there  was  no  hail. 

During  this  hail  storm  Pharaoh  sent  for  Moses 
and  Aaron  and  admitted  that  he  had  sinned,  that  the 
Lord  was  righteous,  and  that  the  Egyptians  were 
wicked,  and  requested  them  to  ask  the  Lord  that 
there  be  no  more  thunderings  and  hail,  and  that  he 
would  let  the  Hebrews  go.  Moses  agreed  that  as 
soon  as  he  got  out  of  the  city  he  would  stretch  forth 
his  hands  unto  the  Lord,  and  that  the  thunderings 
should  cease  and  the  hail  should  stop.  But,  when 
the  rain  and  the  hail  and  the  thundering  ceased, 
Pharaoh  concluded  that  he  would  not  let  the 
children   of  Israel  go. 

Again,  God  sent  Moses  and  Aaron,  instructing 
them  to  tell  Pharaoh  that  if  he  refused  to  let  the 
people  go,  the  face  of  the  earth  would  be  covered 
with  locusts,  so  that  man  would  not  be  able  to  see 
the  ground,  and  that  these  locusts  would  eat  the 
residue  of  that  which  escaped  from  the  hail  ;  that 
they  would  eat  every  tree  out  of  the  field  ;  that  they 
would  fill  the  houses  of  Pharaoh  and  the  houses  of 
all  his  servants,  and  the  houses  of  all  the  Egyptians. 
Moses  delivered  the  message,  and  went  out  from 
Pharaoh.      Some   of   Pharaoh's    servants    entreated 


202  SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES. 


their  master  to  let  the  children  of  Israel  go. 
Pharaoh  sent  for  Moses  and  Aaron  and  asked 
them,  who  wished  to  go  into  the  wilderness  to 
sacrifice.  They  replied  that  they  wished  to  go  with 
the  young  and  old  ;  with  their  sons  and  daughters, 
with  flocks  and  herds.  Pharaoh  would  not  consent 
to  this,  but  agreed  that  the  men  might  go.  There8 
upon  Pharaoh  drove  Moses  and  Aaron  out  of  his 
sio-ht.     Then  God  told  Moses  to   stretch  forth   his 

o 

hand  upon  the  land  of  Egypt  for  the  locusts,  that 
they  might  come  up  and  eat  every  herb,  even  all 
that  the  hail  had  left.  "  And  Moses  stretched  out 
his  rod  over  the  land  of  Egypt,  and  the  Lord  brought 
an  East  wind  all  that  day  and  all  that  night ;  and 
and  when  it  was  morning  the  East  wind  brought  the 
locusts ;  and  they  came  up  over  all  the  land  of  Egypt 
and  rested  upon  all  the  coasts  covering  the  face  of 
tin-  whole  earth,  so  that  the  land  was  darkened  ; 
and  they  ate  every  herb  and  all  the  fruit  of  the 
trees  which  the  hail  had  left,  and  there  remained 
not  any  green  thing  on  the  trees  or  in  the  herbs 
of  the  field  throughout  the  land  of  Egypt."  Pharaoh 
then  called  for  Moses  and  Aaron  in  great  haste, 
admitted  that  he  had  sinned  against  the  Lord  their 
God  and  against  them,  asked  their  forgiveness  and 


SOME    MISTAKES    OE    MOSES.  20' 


requested  them  to  intercede  with  God  that  he  might 
take  away  the  locusts.  They  went  out  from  his 
presence  and  asked  the  Lord  to  drive  the  locusts 
away,  "  And  the  Lord  made  a  strong  west  wind 
which  took  away  the  locusts,  and  cast  them  into  the 
Red  Sea  so  that  there  remained  not  one  locust  in  all 
the  coasts  of  Egypt." 

As  soon  as  the  locusts  were  gone,  Pharaoh 
changed  his  mind,  and,  in  the  language  of  the  sacred 
text,  "  the  Lord  hardened  Pharaoh's  heart  so  that  he 
would  not  let  the  children  of  Israel  go." 

The  Lord  then  told  Moses  to  stretch  out  his 
hand  toward  heaven  that  there  might  be  darkness 
over  the  land  of  Egypt,  "  even  darkness  which  might 
be  felt."  "  And  Moses  stretched  forth  his  hand 
toward  heaven,  and  there  was  a  thick  darkness  over 
the  land  of  Egypt  for  three  days  during  which  time 
they  saw  not  each  other,  neither  arose  any  of  the 
people  from  their  places  for  three  days  ;  but  the 
children  of  Israel  had  liidit  in  their  dwellings." 

It  strikes  me  that  when  the  land  of  Egypt  was 
covered  with  thick  darkness — so  thick  that  it  could 
be  felt,  and  when  lisdit  was  in  the  dwelling's  of  the 
Israelites,  there  could  have  been  no  better  time  for 
the  Hebrews  to  have  left  the  country. 


204  SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES. 

Pharaoh  again  called  for  Moses,  and  told  him 
that  his  people  could  go  and  serve  the  Lord,  pro- 
vided they  would  leave  their  flocks  and  herds. 
Moses  would  not  agree  to  this,  for  the  reason  that 
they  needed  the  flocks  and  herds  for  sacrifices  and 
burnt  offerings,  and  he  did  not  know  how  many  of 
the  animals  God  might  require,  and  for  that  reason 
he  could  not  leave  a  single  hoof.  Upon  the  question 
of  the  cattle,  they  divided,  and  Pharaoh  again  refused 
to  let  the  people  go.  God  then  commanded  Moses 
to  tell  the  Hebrews  to  borrow,  each  of  his  neighbor, 
jewels  of  silver  and  gold.  By  a  miraculous  interpo- 
sition the  Hebrews  found  favor  in  the  sight  of  the 
Egyptians  so  that  they  loaned  the  articles  asked  for. 
After  this,  Moses  again  went  to  Pharaoh  and  told 
him  that  all  the  first-born  in  the  land  of  Egypt,  from 
the  first-born  of  Pharaoh  upon  the  throne,  unto  the 
first-born  of  the  maid-servant  who  was  behind  the 
mill,  as  well  as  the  first-born  of  beasts,  should  die. 

As  all  the  beasts  had  been  destroyed  by  disease 
and  hail,  it  is  troublesome  to  understand  the  meaning 
of  the  threat  as  to  their  first-born. 

Preparations  were  accordingly  made  for  carrying 
this  frightful  threat  into  execution.  Blood  was  put 
on  the  door-posts  of  all  houses  inhabited  by  Hebrews, 


SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES.  205 

so  that  God,  as  he  passed  through  that  land,  might 
not  be  mistaken  and  destroy  the  first-born  of  the 
Jews.  "And  it  came  to  pass  that  at  midnight  the 
Lord  smote  all  the  first-born  in  the  land  of  Egypt, 
the  first-born  of  Pharaoh  who  sat  on  the  throne,  and 
the  first-born  of  the  captive  who  was  in  the  dungeon. 
And  Pharaoh  rose  up  in  the  night,  and  all  his 
servants,  and  all  the  Egyptians,  and  there  was  a 
great  cry  in  Egypt,  for  there  was  not  a  house  where 
there  was  not  one  dead." 

What  had  these  children  done  ?  Why  should 
the  babes  in  the  cradle  be  destroyed  on  account  of 
the  crime  of  Pharaoh  ?  Why  should  the  cattle  be 
destroyed  because  man  had  enslaved  his  brother  ? 
In  those  days  women  and  children  and  cattle  were 
put  upon  an  exact  equality,  and  all  considered 
as  the  property  of  the  men ;  and  when  man  in 
some  way  excited  the  wrath  of  God,  he  punished 
th3m  by  destroying  all  their  cattle,  their  wives, 
and  their  little  ones.  Where  can  words  be  found 
bitter  enough  to  describe  a  god  who  would  kill 
wives  and  babes  because  husbands  and  fathers 
had  failed  to  keep  his  law  ?  Every  good  man, 
and  every  good  woman,  must  hate  and  despise 
such  a  deity. 


206  SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES. 

Upon  the  death  of  all  the  first-born  Pharaoh  sent 
for  Moses  and  Aaron,  and  not  only  gave  his  consent 
that  they  might  go  with  the  Hebrews  into  the 
wilderness,  but  besought  them  to  go  at  once. 

Is  it  possible  that  an  infinite  God,  creator  of  all 
worlds  and  sustainer  of  all  life,  said  to  Pharaoh, 
"  If  you  do  not  let  my  people  go,  I  will  turn 
all  the  water  of  your  country  into  blood,"  and 
that  upon  the  refusal  of  Pharaoh  to  release  the 
people,  God  did  turn  all  the  waters  into  blood  ? 
Do   you  believe  this  ? 

Do  you  believe  that  Pharaoh  even  after  all  the 
water  was  turned  to  blood,  refused  to  let  the 
Hebrews  go,  and  that  thereupon  God  told  him  he 
would  cover  his  land  with  frogs?  Do  you  believe 
this  ? 

Do  you  believe  that  after  the  land  was  covered 
with  frogs  Pharaoh  still  refused  to  let  the  people  go, 
and  that  God  then  said  to  him,  "  I  will  cover  you  and 
all  your  people  with  lice?"  Do  you  believe  God 
would  make  this  threat? 

Do  you  also  believe  that  God  told  Pharaoh,  "If 
you  do  not  let  these  people  go,  I  will  fill  all  your 
houses  and  cover  your  country  with  flies  ? "  Do  you 
believe  God  makes  such  threats  as  this  ? 


SOME!    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES.  ZOJ 

Of  course  God  must  have  known  that  turning  the 
waters  into  blood,  covering  the  country  with  frogs, 
infesting  all  flesh  with  lice,  and  filling  all  houses  with 
flies,  would  not  accomplish  his  object,  and  that  all 
these  plagues  would  have  no  effect  whatever  upon 
the  Egyptian  king. 

Do  you  believe  that,  failing  to  accomplish  any- 
thing by  the  flies,  God  told  Pharaoh  that  if  he  did 
not  let  the  people  go  he  would  kill  his  cattle  with 
murrain  ?     Does  such  a  threat  sound  God-like  ? 

Do  you  believe  that,  failing  to  effect  anything  by 
killing  the  cattle,  this  same  God  then  threatened  to 
afflict  all  the  people  with  boils,  including  the  magi- 
cians who  had  been  rivaling  him  in  the  matter  of 
miracles  ;  and  failing  to  do  anything  by  boils,  that 
he  resorted  to  hail  ?  Does  this  sound  reasonable  ? 
The  hail  experiment  having  accomplished  nothing, 
do  you  believe  that  God  murdered  the  first-born  of 
animals  and  men  ?  Is  it  possible  to  conceive  of 
anything  more  utterly  absurd,  stupid,  revolting,  cruel 
and  senseless,  than  the  miracles  said  to  have  been 
wrought  by  the  Almighty  for  the  purpose  of  inducing 
Pharaoh  to  liberate  the  children  of  Israel  ? 

Is  it  not  altogether  more  reasonable  to  say  that 
the  Jewish  people,  being  in  slavery,  accounted  for 


208  SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES. 

the  misfortunes  and  calamities,  suffered  by  the 
Egyptians,  by  saying  that  they  were  the  judgments 
of  God  ? 

When  the  Armada  of  Spain  was  wrecked  and 
scattered  by  the  storm,  the  English  people  believed 
that  God  had  interposed  in  their  behalf,  and  publicly 
gave  thanks.  When  the  battle  of  Lepanto  was  won, 
it  was  believed  by  the  catholic  world  that  the  victory 
was  given  in  answer  to  prayer.  So,  our  fore-fathers 
in  their  revolutionary  struggle  saw,  or  thought  they 
saw,  the  hand  of  God,  and  most  firmly  believed  that 
they  achieved  their  independence  by  the  interposi- 
tion of  the  Most  High. 

Now,  it  may  be  that  while  the  Hebrews  were 
enslaved  by  the  Egyptians,  there  were  plagues  of 
locusts  and  flies.  It  may  be  that  there  were  some  dis- 
eases by  which  many  of  the  cattle  perished.  It  may  be 
that  a  pestilence  visited  that  country  so  that  in  nearly 
every  house  there  was  some  one  dead.  If  so,  it  was 
but  natural  for  the  enslaved  and  superstitious  Jews 
to  account  for  these  calamities  by  saying  that  they 
were  punishments  sent  by  their  God.  Such  ideas 
will  be  found  in  the  history  of  every  country. 

For  a  long  time  the  Jews  held  these  opinions, 
and  they  were  handed  from  father  to  son  simply  by 


SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES.  »  2CX) 

tradition.  By  the  time  a  written  language  had  been 
produced,  thousands  of  additions  had  been  made, 
and  numberless  details  invented ;  so  that  we  have 
not  only  an  account  of  the  plagues  suffered  by  the 
Egyptians,  but  the  whole  woven  into  a  connected 
story,  containing  the  threats  made  by  Moses  and 
Aaron,  the  miracles  wrought  by  them,  the  promises 
of  Pharaoh,  and  finally  the  release  of  the  Hebrews, 
as  a  result  of  the  marvelous  things  performed  in  their 
behalf  by  Jehovah. 

In  any  event  it  is  infinitely  more  probable  that 
the  author  was  misinformed,  than  that  the  God  of 
this  universe  was  guilty  of  these  childish,  heartless 
and  infamous  things.  The  solution  of  the  whole 
matter  is  this : — Moses  was  mistaken. 


14 


XXIII. 
THE  FLIGHT. 

Three  millions  of  people,  with  their  flocks  and 
herds,  with  borrowed  jewelry  and  raiment,  with 
unleavened  dough  in  kneading  troughs  bound  in 
their  clothes  upon  their  shoulders,  in  one  night  com- 
menced their  journey  for  the  land  of  promise.  We 
are  not  told  how  they  were  informed  of  the  precise 
time  to  start.  With  all  the  modern  appliances,  it 
would  require  months  of  time  to  inform  three  millions 
of  people  of  any  fact. 

In  this  vast  assemblage  there  were  six  hundred 
thousand  men  of  war,  and  with  them  were  the  old, 
the  young,  the  diseased  and  helpless.  Where  were 
those  people  going  ?  They  were  going  to  the  desert 
of  Sinai,  compared  with  which  Sahara  is  a  garden. 
Imagine  an  ocean  of  lava  torn  by  storm  and  vexed 
by  tempest,  suddenly  gazed  at  by  a  Gorgon  and 
changed  instantly  to  stone !  Such  was  the  desert  of 
Sinaio 


SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES.  211 

All  of  the  civilized  nations  of  the  world 
could  not  feed  and  support  three  millions  of 
people  on  the  desert  of  Sinai  for  forty  years. 
It  would  cost  more  than  one  hundred  thousand 
millions  of  dollars,  and  would  bankrupt  Chris- 
tendom. They  had  with  them  their  flocks  and 
herds,  and  the  sheep  were  so  numerous  that 
the  Israelites  sacrificed,  at  one  time,  more  than 
one  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  first-born  lambs. 
How  were  these  flocks  supported  ?  What  did 
they  eat  ?  Where  were  meadows  and  pastures 
for  them  ?  There  was  no  grass,  no  forests — 
nothing  !  There  is  no  account  of  its  having 
rained  baled  hay,  nor  is  it  even  claimed  that  they 
were  miraculously  fed.  To  support  these  flocks, 
millions  of  acres  of  pasture  would  4iave  been  re- 
quired. God  did  not  take  the  Israelites  through 
the  land  of  the  Philistines,  for  fear  that  when 
they  saw  the  people  of  that  country  they  would 
return  to  Egypt,  but  he  took  them  by  the  way 
of  the  wilderness  to  the  Red  Sea,  going  before 
them  by  day  in  a  pillar  of  cloud,  and  by  night,  in  a 
pillar   of  fire. 

When  it  was  told  Pharaoh  that  the  people  had 
fled,  he   made   ready  and   took  six  hundred  chosen 


2  12  SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES. 

chariots  of  Egypt,  and  pursued  after  the  children  of 
Israel,  overtaking  them  by  the  sea.  As  all  the 
animals  had  long  before  that  time  been  destroyed, 
we  are  not  informed  where  Pharaoh  obtained  the 
horses  for  his  chariots.  The  moment  the  children 
of  Israel  saw  the  hosts  of  Pharaoh,  although  they 
had  six  hundred  thousand  men  of  war,  they  imme- 
diately cried  unto  the  Lord  for  protection.  It  is 
wonderful  to  me  that  a  land  that  had  been  ravaged 
by  the  plagues  described  in  the  bible,  still  had  the 
power  to  put  in  the  field  an  army  that  would  carry 
terror  to  the  hearts  of  six  hundred  thousand  men  of 
war.  Even  with  the  help  of  God,  it  seems,  they  were 
not  strong  enough  to  meet  the  Egyptians  in  the  open 
field,  but  resorted  to  strategy.  Moses  again  stretched 
forth  his  wonderful  rod  over  the  waters  of  the  Red 
Sea,  and  they  were  divided,  and  the  Hebrews  passed 
through  on  dry  land,  the  waters  standing  up  like  a 
wall  on  either  side.  The  Egyptians  pursued  them  ; 
"  and  in  the  morning  watch  the  Lord  looked  into  the 
hosts  of  the  Egyptians,  through  the  pillar  of  fire," 
and  proceeded  to  take  the  wheels  off  their  chariots. 
As  soon  as  the  wheels  were  off,  God  told  Moses  to 
stretch  out  his  hand  over  the  sea.  Moses  did  so, 
and  immediately  "  the  waters  returned  and  covered 


SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES. 


213 


the  chariots  and  horsemen  and  all  the  hosts  of 
Pharaoh  that  came  into  the  sea,  and  there  remained 
not  so  much  as  one  of  them." 

This  account  may  be  true,  but  still  it  hardly  looks 
reasonable  that  God  would  take  the  wheels  off  the 
chariots.  How  did  he  do  it  ?  Did  he  pull  out  the 
linch-pins,  or  did  he  just  take  them  off  by  main 
force  ? 

What  a  picture  this  presents  to  the  mind !  God 
the  creator  of  the  universe,  maker  of  every  shinino-, 
glittering  star,  engaged  in  pulling  off  the  wheels  of 
wagons,  that  he  might  convince  Pharaoh  of  his 
greatness  and  power ! 

Where  were  these  people  going  ?  They  were 
going  to  the  promised  land.  How  large  a  country 
was  that?  About  twelve  thousand  square  miles. 
About  one-fifth  the  size  of  the  State  of  Illinois.  It 
was  a  frightful  country,  covered  with  rocks  and  deso- 
lation. How  many  people  were  in  the  promised  land 
already  ?  Moses  tells  us  there  were  seven  nations  in 
that  country  mightier  than  the  Jews.  As  there  were 
at  least  three  millions  of  Jews,  there  must  have  been 
at  least  twenty-one  millions  of  people  already  in  that 
country.  These  had  to  be  driven  out  in  order  that 
room  might  be  made  for  the  chosen  people  of  God. 


2  14  SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES. 

It  seems,  however,  that  God  was  not  willing  to  take 
the  children  of  Israel  into  the  promised  land  imme- 
diately. They  were  not  fit  to  inhabit  the  land  of 
Canaan  ;  so  he  made  up  his  mind  to  allow  them  to 
wander  upon  the  desert  until  all  except  two,  who 
had  left  Egypt,  should  perish.  Of  all  the  slaves 
released  from  Egyptian  bondage,  only  two  were 
allowed  to  reach  the  promised  land ! 

As  soon  as  the  Hebrews  crossed  the  Red  Sea, 
they  found  themselves  without  food,  and  with  water 
unfit  to  drink  by  reason  of  its  bitterness,  and  they 
began  to  murmur  against  Moses,  who  cried  unto  the 
Lord,  and  "  the  Lord  showed  him  a  tree."  Moses 
cast  this  tree  into  the  waters,  and  they  became  sweet. 
"  And  it  came  to  pass  in  the  morning  the  dew  lay 
around  about  the  camp  ;  and  when  the  dew  that  lay 
was  gone,  behold,  upon  the  face  of  the  wilderness  lay 
a  small  round  thing,  small  as  the  hoar-frost  upon  the 
ground.  And  Moses  said  unto  them,  this  is  the 
bread  which  the  Lord  hath  given  you  to  eat."  This 
manna  was  a  very  peculiar  thing.  It  would  melt  in 
the  sun,  and  yet  they  could  cook  it  by  seething  and 
baking.  One  would  as  soon  think  of  frying  snow  or 
of  broiling  icicles.  But  this  manna  had  another 
remarkable  quality.     No  matter  how  much  or  little 


SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES.  2l5 

any  person  gathered,  he  would  have  an  exact 
omer ;  if  he  gathered  more,  it  would  shrink 
to  that  amount,  and  if  he  gathered  less,  it 
would  swell  exactly  to  that  amount.  What  a 
magnificent  substance  manna  would  be  with 
which  to  make  a  currency — shrinking  and  swell- 
ing according  to  the  great  laws  of  supply  and 
demand  ! 

"  Upon  this  manna  the  children  of  Israel  lived  for 
forty  years,  until  they  came  to  a  habitable  land. 
With  this  meat  were  they  fed  until  they  reached  the 
borders  of  the  land  of  Canaan."  We  are  told 
in  the  twenty-first  chapter  of  Numbers,  that  the 
people  at  last  became  tired  of  the  manna,  com- 
plained of  God,  and  asked  Moses  why  he  brought 
them  out  of  the  land  of  Egypt  to  die  in  the 
wilderness.  And  they  said: — "There  is  no  bread, 
nor  have  we  any  water.  Our  soul  loatheth  this 
light  food." 

We  are  told  by  some  commentators  that  the 
Jews  lived  on  manna  for  forty  years ;  by  others  that 
they  lived  upon  it  for  only  a  short  time.  As  a 
matter  of  fact  the  accounts  differ,  and  this  difference 
is  the  opportunity  for  commentators.  It  also  allows 
u-s  to  exercise  faith  in   believing  that  both  accounts 


2l6  SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES. 

are  true.  If  the  accounts  agreed,  and  were  reasona- 
ble, they  would  be  believed  by  the  wicked  and 
unregenerated.  But  as  they  are  different  and 
unreasonable,  they  are  believed  only  by  the  good. 
Whenever  a  statement  in  the  bible  is  unreasonable, 
and  you  believe  it,  you  are  considered  quite  a  good 
christian.  If  the  statement  is  grossly  absurd  and 
infinitely  impossible,  and  you  still  believe  it,  you  are 
a  saint. 

The  children  of  Israel  were  in  the  desert,  and 
they  were  out  of  water.  They  had  nothing  to  eat 
but  manna,  and  this  they  had  had  so  long  that  the 
soul  of  every  person  abhorred  it.  Under  these 
circumstances  they  complained  to  Moses.  Now,  as 
God  is  infinite,  he  could  just  as  well  have  furnished 
them  with  an  abundance  of  the  purest  and  coolest  of 
water,  and  could,  without  the  slightest  trouble  to 
himself,  have  given  them  three  excellent  meals  a 
day,  with  a  generous  variety  of  meats  and  vegetables, 
it  is  very  hard  to  see  why*  he  did  not  do  so.  It  is 
still  harder  to  conceive  why  he  fell  into  a  rage  when 
the  people  mildly  suggested  that  they  would  like  a 
change  of  diet.  Day  after  day,  week  after  week, 
month  after  month,  year  after  year,  nothing  but 
manna.     No  doubt  they  did  the  best  they  could  by 


SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES.  21 7 

cooking  it  in  different  ways,  but  in  spite  of  them- 
selves they  began  to  loathe  its  sight  and  taste,  and 
so  they  asked  Moses  to  use  his  influence  to  secure  a 
change  in  the  bill  of  fare. 

Now,  I  ask,  whether  it  was  unreasonable  for  the 
Jews  to  suggest  that  a  little  meat  would  be  very 
gratefully  received  ?  It  seems,  however,  that  as 
soon  as  the  request  was  made,  this  God  of  infinite 
mercy  became  infinitely  enraged,  and  instead  of 
granting  it,  went  into  partnership  with  serpents,  for 
the  purpose  of  punishing  the  hungry  wretches  to 
whom  he  had  promised  a  land  flowing  with  milk 
and  honey. 

Where  did  these  serpents  come  from  ?  How  did 
God  convey  the  information  to  the  serpents,  that  he 
wished  them  to  go  to  the  desert  of  Sinai  and  bite 
some  Jews  ?  It  may  be  urged  that  these  serpents 
were  created  for  the  express  purpose  of  punishing 
the  children  of  Israel  for  having  had  the  presumption, 
like  Oliver  Twist,  to  ask  for  more. 

There  is  another  account  in  the  eleventh  chapter 
of  Numbers,  of  the  people  murmuring  because  of  their 
food.  They  remembered  the  fish,  the  cucumbers, 
the  melons,  the  leeks,  the  onions  and  the  garlic  of 
Egypt,  and  they  asked  for  meat.     The  people  went 


2l8  SOME  MISTAKES  OF  MOSES. 

to  the  tent  of  Moses  and  asked  him  for  flesh.  Moses 
cried  unto  the  Lord  and  asked  him  why  he  did  not 
take  care  of  the  multitude.  God  thereupon  agreed 
that  they  should  have  meat,  not  for  a  day  or  two, 
but  for  a  month,  until  the  meat  should  come  out  of 
their  nostrils  and  become  loathsome  to  them.  He 
then  caused  a  wind  to  bring  quails  from  beyond  the 
sea,  and  cast  them  into  the  camp,  on  every  side  of 
the  camp  around  about  for  the  space  of  a  days 
journey.  And  the  people  gathered  them,  and  while 
the  flesh  was  yet  between  their  teeth  the  wrath  of 
God  being  provoked  against  them,  struck  them  with 
an  exceeding  great  plague.  Serpents,  also,  were 
sent  among  them,  and  thousands  perished  for  the 
crime  of  having  been  hungry. 

The  Rev.  Alexander  Cruden  commenting  upon 
this  account  says  : — 

"  God  caused  a  wind  to  rise  that  drove  the  quails 
within  and  about  the  camp  of  the  Israelites  ;  and  it 
is  in  this  that  the  miracle  consists,  that  they  were 
brought  so  seasonably  to  this  place,  and  in  so  great 
numbers  as  to  suffice  above  a  million  of  persons 
above  a  month.  Some  authors  affirm,  that  in  those 
eastern  and  southern  countries,  quails  are  innumer- 
able, so  that  in  one  part  of  Italy  within  the  compass 


SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES.  2IO. 

of  five  miles,  there  were  taken  about  an  hundred 
thousand  of  them  every  day  for  a  month  together  ; 
and  that  sometimes  they  fly  so  thick  over  the  sea, 
that  being  weary  they  fall  into  ships,  sometimes  in 
such  numbers,  that  they  sink  them  with  their 
weight." 

No  wonder  Mr.  Cruden  believed  the  Mosaic 
account. 

Must  we  believe  that  God  made  an  arrangement 
with  hornets  for  the  purpose  of  securing  their  services 
in  driving  the  Canaanites  from  the  land  of  promise  ? 
Is  this  belief  necessary  unto  salvation  ?  Must  we 
believe  that  God  said  to  the  Jews  that  he  would  send 
hornets  before  them  to  drive  out  the  Canaanites,  as 
related  in  the  twenty-third  chapter  of  Exodus,  and 
the  seventh  chapter  of  Deuteronomy?  How  would 
the  hornets  know  a  Canaanite  ?  In  what  way  would 
God  put  it  in  the  mind  of  a  hornet  to  attack  a 
Canaanite  ?  Did  God  create  hornets  for  that  especial 
purpose,  implanting  an  instinct  to  attack  a  Canaanite, 
but  not  a  Hebrew  ?  Can  we  conceive  of  the 
Almighty  granting  letters  of  marque  and  reprisal  to 
hornets  ?  Of  course  it  is  admitted  that  nothing  in 
the  world  would  be  better  calculated  to  make  a  man 
leave    his   native    land   than  a   few   hornets.      Is   it 


220  SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES. 

possible  for  us  to  believe  that  an  infinite  being  would 
resort  to  such  expedients  in  order  to  drive  the 
Canaanites  from  their  country  ?  He  could  just  as 
easily  have  spoken  the  Canaanites  out  of  existence 
as  to  have  spoken  the  hornets  in.  In  this  way  a  vast 
amount  of  trouble,  pain  and  suffering  would  have 
been  saved.  Is  it  possible  that  there  is,  in  this 
country,  an  intelligent  clergyman  who  will  insist  that 
these  stories  are  true  ;  that  we  must  believe  them  in 
in  order  to  be  good  people  in  this  world,  and  glori- 
fied souls  in  the  next  ? 

We  are  also  told  that  God  instructed  the  Hebrews 
to  kill  the  Canaanites  slowly,  giving  as  a  reason  that 
the  beasts  of  the  field  might  increase  upon  his  chosen 
people.  When  we  take  into  consideration  the  fact 
that  the  Holy  Land  contained  only  about  eleven  or 
twelve  thousand  square  miles,  and  was  at  that  time 
inhabited  by  at  least  twenty-one  millions  of  people, 
it  does  not  seem  reasonable  that  the  wild  beasts  could 
have  been  numerous  enough  to  cause  any  great 
alarm.  The  same  ratio  of  population  would  give  to 
the  State,  of  Illinois  at  least  one  hundred  and  twenty 
millions  of  inhabitants.  Can  anybody  believe  that, 
under  such  circumstances,  the  danger  from  wild 
beasts  could  be  very  great  ?     What  would  we  think 


SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES.  221 

of  a  general,  invading  such  a  state,  if  he  should  order 
his  soldiers  to  kill  the  people  slowly,  lest  the  wild 
beasts  might  increase  upon  them  ?  Is  it  possible 
that  a  God  capable  of  doing  the  miracles  recounted 
in  the  Old  Testament  could  not,  in  some  way,  have 
disposed  of  the  wild  beasts  ?  After  the  Canaanites 
were  driven  out,  could  he  not  have  employed  the 
hornets  to  drive  out  the  wild  beasts  ?  Think  of  a 
God  that  could  drive  twenty-one  millions  of  people 
out  of  the  promised  land,  could  raise  up  innumerable 
stinging  flies,  and  could  cover  the  earth  with  fiery 
serpents,  and  yet  seems  to  have  been  perfectly 
powerless  against  the  wild  beasts  of  the  land  of 
Canaan  ! 

Speaking  of  these  hornets,  one  of  the  good  old 
commentators,  whose  views  have  long  been  con- 
sidered of  great  value  by  the  believers  in  the 
inspiration  of  the  bible,  uses  the  following  language  : 
— "  Hornets  are  a  sort  of  strong  flies,  which  the  Lord 
used  as  instruments  to  plague  the  enemies  of  his 
people.  They  are  of  themselves  very  troublesome 
and  mischievous,  and  those  the  Lord  made  use  of 
were,  it  is  thought,  of  an  extraordinary  bigness  and 
perniciousness.  It  is  said  they  live  as  the  wasps, 
and  that  they  have  a  king  or  captain,  and   pestilent 


2  22  SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES; 

stings  as  bees,  and  that,  if  twenty-seven  of  them 
stine  man  or  beast,  it  is  certain  death  to  either. 
Nor  is  it  strange  that  such  creatures  did  drive  out 
the  Canaanites  from  their  habitations ;  for  many 
heathen  writers  give  instances  of  some  people  driven 
from  their  seats  by  frogs,  others  by  mice,  others  by 
bees  and  wasps.  And  it  is  said  that  a  christian  city, 
being  besieged  by  Sapores,  king  of  Persia,  was 
delivered  by  hornets ;  for  the  elephants  and  beasts 
being  stung  by  them,  waxed  unruly,  and  so  the 
whole  army  fled." 

Only  a  few  years  ago,  all  such  stories  were 
believed  by  the  christian  world ;  and  it  is  a  historical 
fact,  that  Voltaire  was  the  third  man  of  any  note  in 
Europe,  who  took  the  ground  that  the  mythologies 
of  Greece  and  Rome  were  without  foundation. 
Until  his  time,  most  christians  believed  as  thoroughly 
in  the  miracles  ascribed  to  the  Greek  and  Roman 
gods  as  in  those  of  Christ  and  Jehovah.  The 
christian  world  cultivated  credulity,  not  only  as  one 
of  the  virtues,  but  as  the  greatest  of  them  all.  But, 
when  Luther  and  his  followers  left  the  church  of 
Rome,  they  were  compelled  to  deny  the  power  of 
the  catholic  church,  at  that  time,  to  suspend  the 
laws  of  nature,  but  took  the  ground  that  such  power 


SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES.  223 


ceased  with  the  apostolic  age.  They  insisted  that 
all  things  now  happened  in  accordance  with  the  laws 
of  nature,  with  the  exception  of  a  few  special  inter- 
ferences in  favor  of  the  protestant  church  in  answer 
to  prayer.  They  taught  their  children  a  double 
philosophy  :  by  one,  they  were  to  show  the  impossi- 
bility of  catholic  miracles,  because  opposed  to  the 
laws  of  nature  ;  by  the  other,  the  probability  of  the 
miracles  of  the  apostolic  age,  because  they  were  in 
conformity  with  the  statements  of  the  scriptures. 
They  had  two  foundations  :  one,  the  law  of  nature, 
and  the  other,  the  word  of  God.  The  protestants 
have  endeavored  to  carry  on  this  double  process  of 
reasoning,  and  the  result  has  been  a  gradual  increase 
of  confidence  in  the  law  of  nature,  and  a  gradual 
decrease  of  confidence  in  the  word  of  God. 

We  are  told,  in  this  inspired  account,  that  the 
clothing  of  the  Jewish  people  did  not  wax  old,  and 
that  their  shoes  refused  to  wear  out.  Some 
commentators  have  insisted  that  angels  attended 
to  the  wardrobes  of  the  Hebrews,  patched  their 
garments,  and  mended  their  shoes.  Certain  it  is, 
however,  that  the  same  clothes  lasted  them  for  forty 
years,  during  the  entire  journey  from  Egypt  to  the 
Holy  Land.     Little  boys  starting  out  with  their  first 


2  24  '     SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES. 

pantaloons,  grew  as  they  traveled,  and  their  clothes 
grew  with  them. 

Can  it  be  necessary  to  believe  a  story  like  this  ? 
Will  men  make  better  husbands,  fathers,  neighbors, 
and  citizens,  simply  by  giving  credence  to  these 
childish  and  impossible  things  ?  Certainly  an  infinite 
God  could  have  transported  the  Jews  to  the  Holy 
Land  in  a  moment,  and  could,  as  easily,  have 
removed  the  Canaanites  to  some  other  country. 
Surely  there  was  no  necessity  for  doing  thousands 
and  thousands  of  petty  miracles,  day  after  day  for 
forty  years,  looking  after  the  clothes  of  three  millions 
of  people,  changing  the  nature  of  wool,  and  linen, 
and  leather,  so  that  they  would  not  "wax  old." 
Every  step,  every  motion,  would  wear  away  some 
part  of  the  clothing,  some  part  of  the  shoes.  Were 
these  parts,  so  worn  away,  perpetually  renewed,  or 
was  the  nature  of  things  so  changed  that  they  could 
not  wear  away?  We  know  that  whenever  matter 
comes  in  contact  with  matter,  certain  atoms,  by 
abrasion,  are  lost.  Were  these  atoms  slathered 
up  every  night  by  angels,  and  replaced  on  the 
soles  of  the  shoes,  on  the  elbows  of  coats,  and 
on  the  knees  of  pantaloons,  so  that  the  next 
morning    they    would    be    precisely    in    the    condi- 


SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES.  2  25 

tion  they    were    on    the    morning   before  ?      There 
must   be   a  mistake    somewhere. 

Can  we  believe  that  the  real  God,  if  there  is  one, 
ever  ordered  a  man  to  be  killed  simply  for  making 
hair  oil,  or  ointment  ?  We  are  told  in  the  thirtieth 
chapter  of  Exodus,  that  the  Lord  commanded  Moses 
to  take  myrrh,  cinnamon,  sweet  calamus,  cassia,  and 
olive  oil,  and  make  a  holy  ointment  for  the  purpose 
of  anointing  the  tabernacle,  tables,  candlesticks  and 
other  utensils,  as  well  as  Aaron  and  his  sons  ;  saying, 
at  the  same  time,  that  whosoever  compounded  any 
like  it,  or  whoever  put  any  of  it  on  a  stranger,  should 
be  put  to  death.  In  the  same  chapter,  the  Lord 
furnishes  Moses  with  a  recipe  for  making  a 
perfume,  saying,  that  whoever  should  make  any 
which  smelled  like  it,  should  be  cut  off  from  his 
people.  This,  to  me,  sounds  so  unreasonable  that  I 
cannot  believe  it.  Why  should  an  infinite  God  care 
whether  mankind  made  ointments  and  perfumes  like 
his  or  not  ?  Why  should  the  Creator  of  all  things 
threaten  to  kill  a  priest  who  approached  his  altar 
without  having:  washed  his  hands  and  feet  ?  These 
commandments  and  these  penalties  would  disgrace 
the  vainest  tyrant  that  ever  sat,  by  chance v  upon  a 
throne.     There  must  be   some  mistake.      I  cannot 

15 


2  26  SOME  MISTAKES  OF  MOSES. 

believe  that  an  infinite  Intelligence  appeared  to 
Moses  upon  Mount  Sinai  having  with  him  a  variety 
of  patterns  for  making  a  tabernacle,  tongs,  snuffers 
and  dishes.  Neither  can  I  believe  that  God  told 
Moses  how  to  cut  and  trim  a  coat  for  a  priest.  Why 
should  a  God  care  about  such  things  ?  Why  should 
he  insist  on  having  buttons  sewed  in  certain  rows, 
and  fringes  of  a  certain  color  ?  Suppose  an  intelli- 
gent civilized  man  was  to  overhear,  on  Mount  Sinai, 
the  following  instructions  from  God  to  Moses  : — 

"  You  must  consecrate  my  priests  as  follows  : — 
You  must  kill  a  bullock  for  a  sin  offering,  and 
have  Aaron  and  his  sons  lay  their  hands  upon  the 
head  of  the  bullock.  Then  you  must  take  the  blood 
and  put  it  upon  the  horns  of  the  altar  round  about 
with  your  finger,  and  pour  some  blood  at  the  bottom 
of  the  altar  to  make  a  reconciliation  ;  and  of  the  fat 
that  is  upon  the  inwards,  the  caul  above  the  liver 
and  two  kidneys,  and  their  fat,  and  burn  them  upon 
the  altar.  You  must  get  a  ram  for  a  burnt  offering, 
and  Aaron  and  his  sons  must  lay  their  hands  upon 
the  head  of  the  ram.  Then  you  must  kill  it  and 
sprinkle  the  blood  upon  the  altar,  and  cut  the  ram 
into  pieces,  and  burn  the  head,  and  the  pieces,  and 
the  fat,  and  wash  the  inwards  and  the  lungs  in  water 


SOME. MISTAKES    OF    MOSES.  227 

and  then  burn  the  whole  ram  upon  the  altar  for  a 
sweet  savor  unto  me.  Then  you  must  get  another 
ram,  and  have  Aaron  and  his  sons  lay  their  hands 
upon  the  head  of  that,  then  kill  it  and  take  of  its 
blood,  and  put  it  on  the  top  of  Aaron's  right  ear, 
and  on  the  thumb  of  his  right  hand,  and  on  the  great 
toe  of  his  right  foot.  And  you  must  also  put  a  little 
of  the  blood  upon  the  top  of  the  right  ears  of  Aaron's 
sons,  and  on  the  thumbs  of  their  right  hands  and  on 
the  great  toes  of  their  right  feet.  And  then  you 
must  take  of  the  fat  that  is  on  the  inwards,  and  the 
caul  above  the  liver  and  the  two  kidneys,  and  their 
fat,  and  the  right  shoulder,  and  out  of  a  basket  of 
unleavened  bread  you  must  take  one  unleavened 
cake  and  another  of  oil  bread,  and  one  wafer,  and 
put  them  on  the  fat  of  the  right  shoulder.  And  you 
must  take  of  the  anointing  oil,  and  of  the  blood,  and 
sprinkle  it  on  Aaron,  and  on  his  garments,  and  on 
his  sons'  garments,  and  sanctify  them  and  all  their 
clothes." — Do  you  believe  that  he  would  have  even 
suspected  that  the  creator  of  the  universe  was 
talking  ? 

Can  any  one  now  tell  why  God  commanded  the 
Jews,  when  they  were  upon  the  desert  of  Sinai,  to 
plant  trees,  telling  them  at  the  same  time  that  they 


228  SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES. 

must  not  eat  any  of  the  fruit  of  sucn  trees  until  after 
the  fourth  year  ?  Trees  could  not  have  been  planted 
in  that  desert,  and  if  they  had.  been,  they  could  not 
have  lived.  Why  did  God  tell  Moses,  while  in  the 
desert,  to  make  curtains  of  fine  linen  ?  Where  could 
he  have  obtained  his  flax  ?  There  was  no  land  upon 
which  it  could  have  been  produced.  Why  did  he 
tell  him  to  make  things  of  gold,  and  silver,  and 
precious  stones,  when  they  could  not  have  been  in 
possession  of  these  things  ?  There  is  but  one 
answer,  and  that  is,  the  Pentateuch  was  written 
hundreds  of  years  after  the  Jews  had  settled  in  the 
Holy  Land,  and  hundreds  of  years  after  Moses  was 
dust  and  ashes. 

When  the  Jews  had  a  written  language,  and  that 
must  have  been  long  after  their  flight  from  Egypt, 
they  wrote  out  their  history  and  their  laws.  Tradi- 
tion had  filled  the  infancy  of  the  nation  with  miracles 
and  special  interpositions  in  their  behalf  by  Jehovah. 
"Patriotism  would  not  allow  these  wonders  to  grow 
small,  and  priestcraft  never  denied  a  miracle.  There 
were  traditions  to  the  effect  that  God  had  spoken 
face  to  face  with  Moses  ;  that  he  had  given  him  the 
tables  of  the  law,  and  had,  in  a  thousand  ways,  made 
known  his  will ;  and  whenever  the  priests  wished  to 


SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES.  2  29 

make  new  laws,  or  amend  old  ones,  they  pretended 
to  have  found  something  more  that  God  said  to 
Moses  at  Sinai.  In  this  way  obedience  was  more 
easily  secured.  Only  a  very  few  of  the  people  could 
read,  and,  as  a  consequence,  additions,  interpolations 
and  erasures  had  no  fear  of  detection.  In  this  way 
we  account  for  the  fact  that  Moses  is  made  to  speak 
of  things  that  did  not  exist  in  his  day,  and  were 
unknown  for  hundreds  of  years  after  his  death. 

In  the  thirtieth  chapter  of  Exodus,  we  are  told 
that  the  people,  when  numbered,  must  give  each  one 
a  half  shekel  after  the  shekel  of  the  sanctuary.  At 
that  time  no  such  money  existed,  and  consequently 
the  account  could  not,  by  any  possibility,  have  been 
written  until  after  there  was  a  shekel  of  the  sanctuary, 
and  there  was  no  such  thing  until  long  after  the 
death  of  Moses.  If  we  should  read  that  Caesar  paid 
his  troops  in  pounds,  shillings  and  pence,  we  would 
certainly  know  that  the  account  was  not  written  by 
Caesar,  nor  in  his  time,  but  we  would  know  that  it 
was  written  after  the  English  had  given  these  names 
to  certain  coins. 

So,  we  find,  that  when  the  Jews  were  upon  the 
desert  it  was  commanded  that  every  mother  should 
bring,  as  a  sin  offering,  a  couple  of  doves  to  the 


23O  SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES. 

priests,  and  the  priests  were  compelled  to  eat  these 
doves  in  the  most  holy  place.  At  the  time  this  law 
appears  to  have  been  given,  there  were  three  million 
people,  and  only  three  priests,  Aaron,  Eleazer  and 
Ithamar.  Among  three  million  people  there  would 
be,  at  least,  three  hundred  births  a  day.  Certainly 
we  are  not  expected  to  believe  that  these  three 
priests  devoured  six  hundred  pigeons  every  twenty- 
four  hours. 

Why  should  a  woman  ask  pardon  of  God  for 
having  been  a  mother  ?  Why  should  that  be  con- 
sidered a  crime  in  Exodus,  which  is  commanded  as  a 
duty  in  Genesis  ?  Why  should  a  mother  be  declared 
unclean  ?  Why  should  giving  birth  to  a  daughter 
be  regarded  twice  as  criminal  as  giving  birth  to  a 
son  ?  Can  we  believe  that  such  laws  and  ceremonies 
were  made  and  instituted  by  a  merciful  and  intelligent 
God  ?  If  there  is  anything  in  this  poor  world  sug- 
gestive of,  and  standing  for,  all  that  is  sweet,  loving 
and  pure,  it  is  a  mother  holding  in  her  thrilled  and 
happy  arms  her  prattling  babe.  Read  the  twelfth 
chapter  of  Leviticus,  and  you  will  see  that  when  a 
woman  became  the  mother  of  a  boy  she  was  so 
unclean  that  she  was  not  allowed  to  touch  a  hallowed 
thing,  nor  to  enter  the  sanctuary  for  forty  days.     If 


SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES.  2^1 


the  babe  was  a  girl,  then  the  mother  was  unfit  for 
eighty  days,  to  enter  the  house  of  God,  or  to  touch 
the  sacred  tongs  and  snuffers.  These  laws,  born  of 
barbarism,  are  unworthy  of  our  day,  and  should  be 
regarded  simply  as  the  mistakes  of  savages. 

Just  as  low  in  the  scale  of  intelligence  are  the 
directions  given  in  the  fifth  chapter  of  Numbers,  for 
the  trial  of  a  wife  of  whom  the  husband  was  jealous. 
This  foolish  chapter  has  been  the  foundation  of  all 
appeals  to  God  for  the  ascertainment  of  facts,  such  as 
the  corsned,  trial  by  battle,  by  water,  and  by  fire,  the 
last  of  which  is  our  judicial  oath.  It  is  very  easy  to 
believe  that  in  those  days  a  guilty  woman  would  be 
afraid  to  drink  the  water  of  jealousy  and  take  the 
oath,  and  that,  through  fear,  she  miofht  be  made  to 
confess.  Admitting  that  the  deception  tended  not 
only  to  prevent  crime,  but  to  discover  it  when 
committed,  still,  we  cannot  admit  that  an  honest 
god  would,  for  any  purpose,  resort  to  dishonest 
means.  In  all  countries  fear  is  employed  as  a  means 
of  getting  at  the  truth,  and  in  this  there  is  nothing 
dishonest,  provided  falsehood  is  not  resorted  to  for 
the  purpose  of  producing  the  fear.  Protestants  laugh 
at  catholics  because  of  their  belief  in  the  efficacy  of 
holy  water,  and  yet  they  teach  their  children  that  a 


232  SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES. 

little  holy  water,  in  which  had  been  thrown  some 
dust  from  the  floor  of  the  sanctuary,  would  work  a 
miracle  in  a  woman's  flesh.  For  hundreds  of  years 
our  fathers  believed  that  a  perjurer  could  not  swallow 
a  piece  of  sacramental  bread.  Such  stories  belong 
to  the  childhood  of  our  race,  and  are  now  believed 
only  by  mental  infants  and  intellectual  babes. 

I  cannot  believe  that  Moses  had  in  his  hands  a 
couple  of  tables  of  stone,  upon  which  God  had 
written  the  ten  commandments,  and  that  when  he 
saw  the  golden  calf,  and  the  dancing,  that  he  dashed 
the  tables  to  the  earth  and  broke  them  in  pieces. 
Neither  do  I  believe  that  Moses  took  a  golden  calf, 
burnt  it,  ground  it  to  powder,  and  made  the  people 
drink  it  with  water,  as  related  in  the  thirty-second 
chapter  of  Exodus. 

There  is  another  account  of  the  giving  of  the  ten 
commandments  to  Moses,  in  the  nineteenth  and 
twentieth  chapters  of  Exodus.  In  this  account  not 
one  word  is  said  about  the  people  having  made  a 
golden  calf,  nor  about  the  breaking  of  the  tables  of 
stone.  In  the  thirty-fourth  chapter  of  Exodus,  there 
is  an  account  of  the  renewal  of  the  broken  tables  of 
the  law,  and  the  commandments  are  given,  but  they 
are  not  the  same  commandments  mentioned  in  the 


SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES.  2^3 

twentieth  chapter.  There  are  two  accounts  of  the 
same  transaction.  Both  of  these  stories  cannot  be 
true,  and  yet  both  must  be  believed.  Any  one  who 
will  take  the  trouble  to  read  the  nineteenth  and 
twentieth  chapters,  and  the  last  verse  of  the  thirty- 
first  chapter,  the  thirty-second,  thirty-third,  and 
thirty-fourth  chapters  of  Exodus,  will  be  compelled 
to  admit  that  both  accounts  cannot  be  true. 

From  the  last  account  it  appears  that  while  Moses 
was  upon  Mount  Sinai  receiving  the  commandments 
from  God,  the  people  brought  their  jewelry  to  Aaron, 
and  he  cast  for  them  a  golden  calf.  This  happened 
before  any  commandment  against  idolatry  had  been 
given.  A  god  ought,  certainly,  to  publish  his  laws 
before  inflicting  penalties  for  their  violation.  To 
inflict  punishment  for  breaking  unknown  and  un- 
published laws  is,  in  the  last  degree,  cruel  and 
unjust.  It  may  be  replied  that  the  Jews  knew  better 
than  to  worship  idols,  before  the  law  was  given.  If 
this  is  so,  why  should  the  law  have  been  given  ?  In 
all  civilized  countries,  laws  are  made  and  pro- 
mulgated, not  simply  for  the  purpose  of  informing 
the  people  as  to  what  is  right  and  wrong,  but  to 
inform  them  of  the  penalties  to  be  visited  upon  those 
who   violate  the   laws.      When  the  ten   command- 


234  SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES. 

ments  were  given,  no  penalties  were  attached.  Not 
one  word  was  written  on  the  tables  of  stone  as  to  the 
punishments  that  would  be  inflicted  for  breaking  any 
or  all  of  the  inspired  laws.  The  people  should  not 
have  been  punished  for  violating  a  commandment 
before  it  was  given.  And  yet,  in  this  case,  Moses 
commanded  the  sons  of  Levi  to  take  their  swords 
and  slay  every  man  his  brother,  his  companion,  and 
his  neighbor.  The  brutal  order  was  obeyed,  and 
three  thousand  men  were  butchered.  The  Levites 
consecrated  themselves  unto  the  Lord  by  murdering 
their  sons,  and  their  brothers,  for  having  violated  a 
commandment  before  it  had  been  p"iven. 

It  has  been  contended  for  many  years  that  the 
ten  commandments  are  the  foundation  of  all  ideas  of 
justice  and  of  law.  Eminent  jurists  have  bowed  to 
popular  prejudice,  and  deformed  their  works  by 
statements  to  the  effect  that  the  Mosaic  laws  are  the 
fountains  from  which  sprang  all  ideas  of  right  and 
wrong.  Nothing  can  be  more  stupidly  false  than 
such  assertions.  Thousands  of  years  before  Moses 
was  born,  the  Egyptians  had  a  code  of  laws.  They 
had  laws  against  blasphemy,  murder,  adultery, 
larceny,  perjury,  laws  for  the  collection  of  debts,  the 
enforcement    of    contracts,     the     ascertainment    of 


SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES.  23!) 

damages,  the  redemption  of  property  pawned,  and 
upon  nearly  every  subject  of  human  interest.  The 
Egyptian  code  was  far  better  than  the  Mosaic. 

Laws  spring  from  the  instinct  of  self-preservation. 
Industry  objected  to  supporting  idleness,  and  laws 
were  made  against  theft.  Laws  were  made  against 
murder,  because  a  very  large  majority  of  the  people 
have  always  objected  to  being  murdered.  All 
fundamental  laws  were  born  simply  of  the  instinct  of 
self-defence.  Long  before  the  Jewish  savages 
assembled  at  the  foot  of  Sinai,  laws  had  been  made 
and  enforced,  not  only  in  Egypt  and  India,  but  by 
every  tribe  that  ever  existed. 

It  is  impossible  for  human  beings  to  exist 
together,  without  certain  rules  of  conduct,  certain 
ideas  of  the  proper  and  improper,  of  the  right  and 
wrong,  growing  out  of  the  relation.  Certain  rules 
must  be  made,  and  must  be  enforced.  This  implies 
law,  trial  and  punishment.  Whoever  produces 
anything  by  weary  labor,  does  not  need  a  revelation 
from  heaven  to  teach  him  that  he  has  a  right  to  the 
thing  produced.  Not  one  of  the  learned  gentlemen 
who  pretend  that  the  Mosaic  laws  are  filled  with 
justice  and  intelligence,  would  live,  for  a  moment, 
in  any  country  where  such  laws  were  in  force. 


236  SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES. 

Nothing  can  be  more  wonderful  than  the  medical 
ideas  of  Jehovah.  He  had  the  strangest  notions 
about  the  cause  and  cure  of  disease.  With  him 
everything  was  miracle  and  wonder.  In  the  four- 
teenth chapter  of  Leviticus,  we  find  the  law  for 
cleansing  a  leper  : — "  Then  shall  the  priest  take  for 
him  that  is  to  be  cleansed,  two  birds,  alive  and  clean, 
and  cedar  wood,  and  scarlet,  and  hyssop.  And  the 
priest  shall  command  that  one  of  the  birds  be  killed 
in  an  earthen  vessel,  over  running  water.  As  for 
the  living  bird,  he  shall  take  it,  and  the  cedar  wood, 
and  the  scarlet,  and  the  hyssop,  and  shall  dip  them, 
and  the  living  bird,  in  the  blood  of  the  bird  that  was 
killed  over  the  running  water.  And  he  shall 
sprinkle  upon  him  that  is  to  be  cleansed  from  the 
leprosy,  seven  times,  and  shall  pronounce  him  clean, 
and  shall  let  the  living  bird  loose  into  the  open 
field." 

We  are  told  that  God  himself  grave  these  direc- 
tions  to  Moses.  Does  anybody  believe  this  ?  Why 
should  the  bird  be  killed  in  an  earthen  vessel  ? 
Would  the  charm  be  broken  if  the  vessel  was  of 
wood  ?  Why  over  running  water  ?  What  would 
be  thought  of  a  physician  now,  who  would  give  a 
prescription  like  that  ? 


SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES.  237 

Is  it  not  strange  that  God,  although  he  gave 
hundreds  of  directions  for  the  purpose  of  discovering 
the  presence  of  leprosy,  and  .for  cleansing  the  leper 
after  he  was  healed,  forgot  to  tell  how  that  disease 
could  be  cured  ?  Is  it  not  wonderful  that  while  God 
told  his  people  what  animals  were  fit  for  food,  he 
failed  to  give  a  list  of  plants  that  man  might  eat  ? 
Why  did  he  leave  his  children  to  find  out  the  hurtful 
and  the  poisonous  by  experiment,  knowing  that  ex- 
periment, in  millions  of  cases,  must  be  death  ? 

When  reading  the  history  of  the  Jewish  people, 
of  their  flight  from  slavery  to  death,  of  their  exchange 
of  tyrants,  I  must  confess  that  my  sympathies  are  all 
aroused  in  their  behalf.  They  were  cheated,  de- 
ceived and  abused.  Their  god  was  quick-tempered 
unreasonable,  cruel,  revengeful  and  dishonest.  He 
was  always  promising  but  never  performed.  He 
wasted  time  in  ceremony  and  childish  detail,  and  in 
the  exaggeration  of  what  he  had  done.  It  is  impos- 
sible for  me  to  conceive  of  a  character  more  utterly 
detestable  than  that  of  the  Hebrew  god.  He  had 
solemnly  promised  the  Jews  that  he  would  take  them 
from  Egypt  to  a  land  flowing  with  milk  and  honey. 
He  had  led  them  to  believe  that  in  a  little  while  their 
troubles  would  be  over,  and  that  they  would  soon 


SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES. 


in  the  land  of  Canaan,  surrounded  by  their  wives  and 
little  ones,  forget  the  stripes  and  tears  of  Egypt. 
After  promising  the  poor  wanderers  again  and  again 
that  he  would  lead  them  in  safety  to  the  promised 
land  of  joy  and  plenty,  this  God,  forgetting  every 
promise,  said  to  the  wretches  in  his  power  : — "  Your 
carcasses  shall  fall  in  this  wilderness  and  your  children 
shall  wander  until  your  carcasses  be  wasted."  This 
curse  was  the  conclusion  of  the  whole  matter.  Into 
this  dust  of  death  and  night  faded  all  the  promises 
of  God.  Into  this  rottenness  of  wandering  despair 
fell  all  the  dreams  of  liberty  and  home.  Millions 
of  corpses  were  left  to  rot  in  the  desert,  and 
each  one  certified  to  the  dishonesty  of  Jehovah.  I 
cannot  believe  these  things.  They  are  so  cruel  and 
heartless,  that  my  blood  is  chilled  and  my  sense  of 
justice  shocked.  A  book  that  is  equally  abhorrent 
to  my  head  and  heart,  cannot  be  accepted  as  a  rev- 
elation from  God. 

When  we  think  of  the  poor  Jews,  destroyed, 
murdered,  bitten  by  serpents,  visited  by  plagues, 
decimated  by  famine,  butchered  by  each  other, 
swallowed  by  the  earth,  frightened,  cursed,  starved, 
deceived,  robbed  and  outraged,  how  thankful  we 
should   be   that  we   are   not  the  chosen  people  of 


SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES.  239 

God.  No  wonder  that  they  longed  for  the  slavery 
of  Egypt,  and  remembered  with  sorvow  the  unhappy 
day  when  they  exchanged  masters.  Compared  with 
Jehovah,  Pharaoh  was  a  benefactor,  and  the  tyranny 
of  Egypt  was  freedom  to  those  who  suffered  the 
liberty  of  God. 

While  reading  the  Pentateuch,  I  am  filled  with 
indignation,  pity  and  horror.  Nothing  can  be 
sadder  than  the  history  of  the  starved  and  frightened 
wretches  who  wandered  over  the  desolate  crag's  and 
sands  of  wilderness  and  desert,  the  prey  of  famine, 
sword,  and  plague.  Ignorant  and  superstitious  to 
the  last  degree,  governed  by  falsehood,  plundered  by 
hypocrisy,  they  were  the  sport  of  priests,  and  the 
food  of  fear.  God  was  their  greatest  enemy,  and 
death  their  only  friend. 

It  is  impossible  to  conceive  of  a  more  thoroughly 
despicable,  hateful,  and  arrogant  being,  than  the 
Jewish  god.  He  is  without  a  redeeming  feature. 
In  the  mythology  of  the  world  he  has  no  parallel. 
He,  only,  is  never  touched  by  agony  and  tears.  He 
delights  only  in  blood  and  pain.  Human  affections 
are  naught  to  him.  He  cares  neither  for  love  nor 
music,  beauty  nor  joy.  A  false  friend,  an  unjust 
judge,  a  braggart,  hypocrite,  and  tyrant,  sincere  in 


24O  SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES. 

hatred,  jealous,  vain,  aad  revengeful,  false  in  promise, 
honest  in  curse,  suspicious,  ignorant,  and  changeable, 
infamous  and  hideous  : — such  is  the  God  of  the 
Pentateuch. 


XXIV. 
CONFESS    AND    AVOID. 

The  scientific  christians  now  admit  that  the  bible 
is  not  inspired  in  its  astronomy,  geology, 
botany,  zoology,  nor  in  any  science.  In  other  words, 
they  admit  that  on  these  subjects,  the  bible  cannot 
be  depended  upon.  If  all  the  statements  in  the 
scriptures  were  true,  there  would  be  no  necessity  for 
admitting  that  some  of  them  are  not  inspired.  A 
christian  will  not  admit  that  a  passage  in  the  bible  is 
uninspired,  until  he  is  satisfied  that  it  is  untrue. 
Orthodoxy  itself  has  at  last  been  compelled  to  say, 
that  while  a  passage  may  be  true  and  uninspired,  it 
cannot  be  inspired  if  false. 

If  the  people  of  Europe  had  known  as  much  of 
astronomy  and  geology  when  the  bible  was  intro- 
duced among  them,  as  they  do  now,  there  never 
could  have  been  one  believer  in  the  doctrine  of 
inspiration.  If  the  writers  of  the  various  parts  of 
the  bible  had  known  as  much  about  the  sciences  as 

16 


242  SOME  MISTAKES  OF  MOSES. 

is  now  known  by  every  intelligent  man,  the  book 
never  could  have  been  written.  It  was  produced  by 
ignorance,  and  has  been  believed  and  defended  by 
its  author.  It  has  lost  power  in  the  proportion  that 
man  has  gained  knowledge.  A  few  years  ago,  this 
book  was  appealed  to  in  the  settlement  of  all  scientific 
questions  ;  but  now,  even  the  clergy  confess  that  in 
such  matters,  it  has  ceased  to  speak  with  the  voice 
of  authority.  For  the  establishment  of  facts,  the 
word  of  man  is  now  considered  far  better  than  the 
word  of  God.  In  the  world  of  science,  Jehovah  was 
superseded  by  Copernicus,  Galileo,  and  Kepler. 
All  that  God  told  Moses,  admitting  the  entire 
account  to  be  true,  is  dust  and  ashes  compared 
to  the  discoveries  of  Des  Cartes,  La  Place,  and 
Humboldt.  In  matters  of  fact,  the  bible  has  ceased 
to  be  regarded  as  a  standard.  Science  has  succeeded 
in  breaking  the  chains  of  theology.  A  few  years 
ago,  Science  endeavored  to  show  that  it  was  not 
inconsistent  with  the  bible.  The  tables  have  been 
turned,  and  now,  Religion  is  endeavoring  to  prove 
that  the  bible  is  not  inconsistent  with  Science.  The 
standard  has  been  changed. 

For  many  ages,  the  christians  contended  that  the 
bible,  viewed  simply  as  a  literary  performance,  was 


SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES.  243 

beyond  all  other  books,  and  that  man  without  the 
assistance  of  God  could  not  produce  its  equal.  This 
claim  was  made  when  but  few  books  existed,  and 
the  bible,  being  the  only  book  generally  known,  had 
no  rival.  But  this  claim,  like  the  other,  has  been 
abandoned  by  many,  and  soon  will  be,  by  all.  Com- 
pared with  Shakespeare's  "  book  and  volume  of  the 
brain,"  the  "  sacred "  bible  shrinks  and  seems  as 
feebly  impotent  and  vain,  as  would  a  pipe  of  Pan, 
when  some  great  organ,  voiced  with  every  tone, 
from  the  hoarse  thunder  of  the  sea  to  the  wringed 
warble  of  a  mated  bird,  floods  and  fills  cathedral 
aisles  with  all  the  wealth  of  sound. 

It  is  now  maintained — and  this  appears  to  be  the 
last  fortification  behind  which  the  doctrine  of  inspi- 
ration skulks  and  crouches — that  the  bible,  although 
false  and  mistaken  in  its  astronomy,  geology,  geog- 
raphy, history  and  philosophy,  is  inspired  in  its 
morality.  It  is  now  claimed  that  had  it  not  been  for 
this  book,  the  world  would  have  been  inhabited  only 
by  savages,  and  that  had  it  not  been  for  the  holy 
scriptures,  man  never  would  have  even  dreamed  of 
the  unity  of  God.  A  belief  in  one  God  is  claimed  to 
be  a  dogma  of  almost  infinite  importance,  that  with- 
out this  belief  civilization  is  impossible,  and  that  this 


244  SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES. 

fact  is  the  sun  around  which  all  the  virtues  revolve. 
For  my  part,  I  think  it  infinitely  more  important 
to  believe  in  man.  Theoiogy  is  a  superstition 
— Humanity  a  religion. 


XXV. 

-INSPIRED"  SLAVERY. 

Perhaps  the  bible  was  inspired  upon  the  subject 
of  human  slavery.  Is  there,  in  the  civilized 
world,  to  day,  a  clergyman  who  believes  in  the 
divinity  of  slavery  ?  Does  the  bible  teach  man  to 
enslave  his  brother  ?  If  it  does,  is  it  not  blasphe- 
mous to  say  that  it  is  inspired  of  God  ?  If  you  find 
the  institution  of  slavery  upheld  in  a  book  said  to 
have  been  written  by  God,  what  would  you  expect 
to  find  in  a  book  inspired  by  the  devil  ?  Would  you 
expect  to  find  that  book  in  favor  of  liberty  ?  Modern 
christians,  ashamed  of  the  God  of  the  Old  Testament, 
endeavor  now  to  show  that  slavery  was  neither 
commanded  nor  opposed  by  Jehovah.  Nothing  can 
be  plainer  than  the  following  passages  from  the 
twenty-fifth  chapter  of  Leviticus.  "  Moreover  of  the 
children  of  the  strangers  that  do  sojourn  among  you, 
of  them  shall  ye  buy,  and  of  their  families  that  are 
with  you,  which  they  begat  in  your  land :  and  they 


246  SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES. 

shall  be  your  possession.  And  ye  shall*  take  them 
as  an  inheritance  for  your  children  after  you,  to 
inherit  them  for  a  possession,  they  shall  be  your 
bond-men  forever.  Both  thy  bond-men,  and  thy 
bond-maids,  which  thou  shalt  have,  shall  be  of  the 
heathen  that  are  round  about  you  ;  of  them  shall  ye 
buy  bond-men,  and  bond-maids." 

Can  we  believe  in  this,  the  Nineteenth  Century, 
that  these  infamous  passages  were  inspired  by  God  ? 
that  God  approved  not  only  of  human  slavery,  but 
instructed  his  chosen  people  to  buy  the  women, 
children  and  babes  of  the  heathen  round  about  them  ? 
If  it  was  right  for  the  Hebrews  to  buy,  it  was  also 
right  for  the  heathen  to  sell.  This  God,  by  com- 
manding the  Hebrews  to  buy,  approved  of  the  selling 
of  sons  and  daughters.  The  Canaanite  who,  tempted 
by  gold,  lured  by  avarice,  sold  from  the  arms  of  his 
wife  the  dimpled  babe,  simply  made  it  possible  for 
the  Hebrews  to  obey  the  orders  of  their  God.  If 
God  is  the  author  of  the  bible,  the  reading  of  these 
passages  ought  to  cover  his  cheeks  with  shame.  I 
ask  the  christian  world  to-day,  was  it  right  for  the 
heathen  to  sell  their  children  ?  Was  it  right  for 
God  not  only  to  uphold,  but  to  command  the  in- 
famous  trartic   in  human   flesh  ?      Could   the   most 


SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES.  247 

revengeful  fiend,  the  most  malicious  vagrant  in  the 
gloom  of  hell,  sink  to  a  lower  moral  depth  than 
this  ? 

According  to  this  God,  his  chosen  people  were 
not  only  commanded  to  buy  of  the  heathen  round 
about  them,  but  were  also  permitted  to  buy  each 
other  for  a  term  of  years.  The  law  governing  the 
purchase  of  Jews  is  laid  down  in  the  twenty-first 
chapter  of  Exodus.  "  If  thou  buy  a  Hebrew  servant, 
six  years  shall  he  serve  :  and  in  the  seventh  he  shall 
go  out  free  for  nothing.  If  he  came  in  by  himself, 
he  shall  go  out  by  himself :  if  he  were  married,  then 
his  wife  shall  gro  out  with  him.  If  his  master  have 
given  him  a  wife,  and  she  have  borne  him  sons  or 
daughters,  the  wTife  and  her  children  shall  be  her 
master's,  and  he  shall  go  out  by  himself.  And  if  the 
servant  shall  plainly  say,  I  love  my  master,  my  wife, 
and  my  children  ;  I  will  not  go  out  free  :  Then  his 
master  shall  bring  him  unto  the  judges  ;  he  shall 
also  bring  him  to  the  door,  or  unto  the  door-post : 
and  his  master  shall  bore  his  ear  through  with  an 
awl  :  and  he  shall  serve  him  forever." 

Do  you  believe  that  God  was  the  author  of  this 
infamous  law  ?  Do  you  believe  that  the  loving 
father  of  us  all,  turned  the  dimpled  arms  of  babes 


248  SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES. 

into  manacles  of  iron  ?  Do  you  believe  that  he 
baited  the  dungeon  of  servitude  with  wife  and  child  ? 
Is  it  possible  to  love  a  God  who  would  make  such 
laws  ?     Is  it  possible  not  to  hate  and  despise  him  ? 

The  heathen  are  not  spoken  of  as  human  beings. 
Their  rights  are  never  mentioned.  They  were  the 
rightful  food  of  the  sword,  and  their  bodies  were 
made  for  stripes  and  chains. 

In  the  same  chapter  of  the  same  inspired  book, 
we  are  told  that,  "  if  a  man  smite  his  servant,  or  his 
maid,  with  a  rod,  and  he  dies  under  his  hand,  he 
shall  be  surely  punished.  Notwithstanding,  if  he 
continue  a  day  or  two,  he  shall  not  be  punished,  for 
he  is  his  money." 

Must  we  believe  that  God  called  some  of  his 
children  the  money  of  others  ?  Can  we  believe  that 
God  made  lashes  upon  the  naked  back,  a  legal 
tender  for  labor  performed?  Must  we  regard  the 
auction  block  as  an  altar?  Were  blood  hounds 
apostles  ?  Was  the  slave-pen  a  temple  ?  Were  the 
stealers  and  whippers  of  babes  and  women  the 
justified  children  of  God  ? 

It  is  now  contended  that  while  the  Old  Testa- 
ment is  touched  with  the  barbarism  of  its  time,  that 
the  New  Testament  is  morally  perfect,  and  that  on 


SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES.  249 

its  pages  can  be  found  no  blot  or  stain.  As  a  matter 
of  fact,  the  New  Testament  is  more  decidedly  in 
favor  of  human  slavery  than  the  old. 

For  my  part,  I  never  will,  I  never  can,  worship  a 
God  who  upholds  the  institution  of  slavery.  Such  a 
God  I  hate  and  defy.  I  neither  want  his  heaven, 
nor  fear  his  hell. 


XXVI. 

-INSPIRED"  MARRIAGE. 

Is  there  an  orthodox  clergyman  in  the  world,  who 
will  now  declare  that  he  believes  the  institution 
of  polygamy  to  be  right  ?  Is  there  one  who  will 
publicly  declare  that,  in  his  judgment,  that  institution 
ever  was  right  ?  Was  there  ever  a  time  in  the 
history  of  the  world  when  it  was  right  to  treat  woman 
simply  as  property  ?  Do  not  attempt  to  answer 
these  questions  by  saying,  that  the  bible  is  an 
exceedingly  good  book,  that  we  are  indebted  for  our 
civilization  to  the  sacred  volume,  and  that  without  it, 
man  would  lapse  into  savagery,  and  mental  night. 
This  is  no  answer.  Was  there  a  time  when  the 
institution  of  polygamy  was  the  highest  expression 
of  human  virtue  ?  Is  there  a  christian  woman, 
civilized,  intelligent,  and  free,  who  believes  in  the 
institution  of  polygamy  ?  Are  we  better,  purer,  and 
more  intelligent  than  God  was  four  thousand  years 
ago  ?      Why    should    we    imprison    Mormons,    and 


SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES.  2D1 

worship  God  ?  Polygamy  is  just  as  pure  in  Utah, 
as  it  could  have  been  in  the  promised  land.  Love 
and  Virtue  are  the  same  the  whole  world  round,  and 
Justice  is  the  same  in  every  star.  All  the  languages 
of  the  world  are  not  sufficient  to  express  the  filth  of 
polygamy.  It  makes  of  man,  a  beast,  of  woman,  a 
trembling  slave.  It  destroys  the  fireside,  makes 
virtue  an  outcast,  takes  from  human  speech  its 
sweetest  words,  and  leaves  the  heart  a  den,  where 
crawl  and  hiss  the  slimy  serpents  of  most  loathsome 
lust.  Civilization  rests  upon  the  family.  The  good 
family  is  the  unit  of  good  government.  The  virtues 
grow  about  the  holy  hearth  of  home — they  cluster, 
bloom,  and  shed  their  perfume  round  the  fireside 
where  the  one  man  loves  the  one  woman.  Lover- 
husband  — wife  —  mother  —  father  —  child  — home ! — 
without  these  sacred  words,  the  world  is  but  a  lair, 
and  men  and  women  merely  beasts. 

Why  should  the  innocent  maiden  and  the  loving 
mother  worship  the  heartless  Jewish  God  ?  Why 
should  they,  with  pure  and  stainless  lips,  read  the 
vile  record  of  inspired  lust  ? 

The  marriage  of  the  one  man  to  the  one 
woman  is  the  citadel  and  fortress  of  civilization. 
Without  this,  woman  becomes  the  prey  and  slave  of 


2$2  SOME   MISTAKES    OF    MOSES. 

lust  and  power,  and  man  goes  back  to  savagery  and 
crime.  From  the  bottom  of  my  heart  I  hate,  abhor 
and  execrate  all  theories  of  life,  of  which  the  pure 
and  sacred  home  is  not  the  corner-stone.  Take 
from  the  world  the  family,  the  fireside,  the  children 
born  of  wedded  love,  and  there  is  nothing  left. 
The  home  where  virtue  dwells  with  love  is  like  a 
lily  with  a  heart  of  fire — the  fairest  flower  in  all  the 
world. 


XXVII. 
"INSPIRED"    WAR. 

If  the  bible  be  true,  God  commanded  his  chosen 
people  to  destroy  men  simply  for  the  crime  of 
defending  their  native  land.  They  were  not  allowed 
to  spare  trembling  and  white-haired  age,  nor  dimpled 
babes  clasped  in  the  mothers'  arms.  They  were 
ordered  to  kill  women,  and  to  pierce,  with  the  sword 
of  war,  the  unborn  child.  "Our  heavenly  Father" 
commanded  the  Hebrews  to  kill  the  men  and  women, 
the  fathers,  sons  and  brothers,  but  to  preserve  the 
girls  alive.  Why  were  not  the  maidens  also  killed  ? 
Why  were  they  spared  ?  Read  the  thirty-first 
chapter  of  Numbers,  and  you  will  find  that  the 
maidens  were  given  to  the  soldiers  and  the  priests. 
Is  there,  in  all  the  history  of  war,  a  more  infamous 
thing  than  this  ?  Is  it  possible  that  God  permitted 
the  violets  of  modesty,  that  grow  and  shed  their 
perfume    in    the    maiden's    heart,    to    be    trampled 


2 S4  SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES. 

beneath  the  brutal  feet  of  lust  ?  If  this  was  the 
order  of  God,  what,  under  the  same  circumstances, 
would  have  been  the  command  of  a  devil  ?  When, 
in  this  age  of  the  world,  a  woman,  a  wife,  a  mother, 
reads  this  record,  she  should,  with  scorn  and  loathing, 
throw  the  book  away.  A  general,  who  now  should 
make  such  an  order,  giving  over  to  massacre  and 
rapine  a  conquered  people,  would  be  held  in  execra- 
tion by  the  whole  civilized  world.  Yet,  if  the  bible 
be  true,  the  supreme  and  infinite  God  was  once  a 
savage. 

A  little  while  ago,  out  upon  the  western  plains, 
in  a  little  path  leading  to  a  cabin,  were  found  the 
bodies  of  two  children  and  their  mother.  Her  breast 
was  filled  with  wounds  received  in  the  defence  of 
her  darlings.  They  had  been  murdered  by  the 
savages.  Suppose  when  looking  at  their  lifeless 
forms,  some  one  had  said,  "  This  was  done  by  the 
command  of  God  !"  In  Canaan  there  were  countless 
scenes  like  this.  There  was  no  pity  in  inspired  war. 
God  raised  the  black  flag,  and  commanded  his 
soldiers  to  kill  even  the  smiling-  infant  in  its  mother's 
arms.  Who  is  the  blasphemer  ;  the  man  who  denies 
the  existence  of  God,  or  he  who  covers  the  robes  of 
the  Infinite  with  innocent  blood  ? 


SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES.  2  55 

We  are  told  in  the  Pentateuch,  that  God,  the 
father  of  us  all,  gave  thousands  of  maidens,  after 
having  killed  their  fathers,  their  mothers,  and  their 
brothers,  to  satisfy  the  brutal  lusts  of  savage  men. 
If  there  be  a  God,  I  pray  him  to  write  in  his  book, 
opposite  my  name,  that  I  denied  this  lie  for  him. 


XXVIII. 
"INSPIRED"    RELIGIOUS    LIBERTY. 

According  to  the  bible,  God  selected  the  Jewish 
people  through  whom  to  make  known  the 
great  fact,  that  he  was  the  only  true  and  living  God, 
For  this  purpose,  he  appeared  on  several  occasions 
to  Moses — came  down  to  Sinai's  top  clothed  in 
cloud  and  fire,  and  wrought  a  thousand  miracles  for 
the  preservation  and  education  of  the  Jewish  people. 
In  their  presence  he  opened  the  waters  of  the  sea. 
For  them  he  caused  bread  to  rain  from  heaven.  To 
quench  their  thirst,  water  leaped  from  the  dry  and 
barren  rock.  Their  enemies  were  miraculously 
destroyed  ;  and  for  forty  years,  at  least,  this  God 
took  upon  himself  the  government  of  the  Jews. 
But,  after  all  this,  many  of  the  people  had  less 
confidence  in  him  than  in  gods  of  wood  and  stone. 
In  moments  of  trouble,  in  periods  of  disaster,  in  the 
darkness  of  doubt,  in  the  hunger  and  thirst  of  famine, 
instead  of  asking  this  God  for  aid,  they  turned  and 


SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES.  257 

sought  the  help  of  senseless  things.  This  God,  with 
all  his  power  and  wisdom,  could  not  even  convince 
a  few  wandering  and  wretched  savages  that  he  was 
more  potent  than  the  idols  of  Egypt.  This  God  was 
not  willing  that  the  Jews  should  think  and  investigate 
for  themselves.  For  heresy,  the  penalty  was  death. 
Where  this  God  reigned,  intellectual  liberty  was 
unknown.  He  appealed  only  to  brute  force  ;  he 
collected  taxes  by  threatening  plagues  ;  he  demanded 
worship  on  pain  of  sword  and  fire  ;  acting  as  spy, 
inquisitor,  judge  and  executioner. 

In  the  thirteenth  chapter  of  Deuteronomy,  we 
have  the  ideas  of  God  as  to  mental  freedom.  "  If 
thy  brother,  the  son  of  thy  mother,  or  thy  son,  or  the 
wife  of  thy  bosom,  or  thy  friend  which  is  as  thine 
own  soul,  entice  thee  secretly,  saying,  Let  us  go  and 
serve  other  gods,  which  thou  hast  not  known,  thou 
nor  thy  fathers  ;  namely  of  the  gods  of  the  people 
which  are  around  about  you,  nigh  unto  thee,  or  far 
off  from  thee,  from  the  one  end  of  the  earth  even 
unto  the  other  end  of  the  earth,  Thou  shalt  not  con- 
sent unto  him,  nor  hearken  unto  him,  neither  shall 
thine  eye  pity  him,  neither  shalt  thou  spare  him, 
neither  shalt  thou  conceal  him.  But  thou  shalt 
surely  kill  him  ;  thine  hand  shall  be  first  upon  him 

17 


2 58  SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES. 


to  put  him  to  death,  and  afterward  the  hand  of  all  the 
people.  And  thou  shalt  stone  him  with  stones  that 
he  die." 

This  is  the  religious  liberty  of  God  ;  the  tolera- 
tion of  Jehovah.  If  I  had  lived  in  Palestine  at  that 
time,  and  my  wife,  the  mother  of  my  children,  had 
said  to  me,  "I  am  tired  of  Jehovah,  he  is  always 
asking  for  blood  ;  he  is  never  weary  of  killing  ;  he 
is  always  telling  of  his  might  and  strength  ;  always 
telling  what  he  has  done  for  the  Jews,  always  asking 
for  sacrifices  ;  for  doves  and  lambs — blood,  nothing 
but  blood. — Let  us  worship  the  sun.  Jehovah  is  too 
revengeful,  too  malignant,  too  exacting.  Let  us 
worship  the  sun.  The  sun  has  clothed  the  world  in 
beauty  ;  it  has  covered  the  earth  with  flowers  ;  by 
its  divine  light  I  first  saw  your  face,  and  my  beautiful 
babe." — If  I  had  obeyed  the  command  of  God,  I 
would  have  killed  her.  My  hand  would  have  been 
first  upon  her,  and  after  that  the  hands  of  all  the 
people,  and  she  would  have  been  stoned  with  stones 
until  she  died.  For  my  part,  I  would  never  kill  my 
wife,  even  if  commanded  so  to  do  by  the  real  God 
of  this  universe.  Think  of  taking  up  some  ragged 
rock  and  hurling  it  against  the  white  bosom  filled 
with  love  for  you  ;  and  when  you  saw  oozing  from 


SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES.  259 

the  bruised  lips  of  the  death  wound,  the  red  current 
of  her  sweet  life — think  of  looking  up  to  heaven  and 
receivino-  the  congratulations  of  the  infinite  fiend 
whose  commandment  you  had  obeyed ! 

Can  we  believe  that  any  such  command  was  ever 
given  by  a  merciful  and  intelligent  God  ?  Suppose, 
however,  that  God  did  give  this  law  to  the  Jews, 
and  did  tell  them  that  whenever  a  man  preached  a 
heresy,  or  proposed  to  worship  any  other  god  that 
they  should  kill  him  ;  and  suppose  that  afterward 
this  same  God  took  upon  himself  flesh,  and  came  to 
this  very  chosen  people  and  taught  a  different 
religion,  and  that  thereupon  the  Jews  crucified  him  ; 
I  ask  you,  did  he  not  reap  exactly  what  he  had  sown  ? 
What  right  would  this  God  have  to  complain  of  a 
crucifixion  suffered  in  accordance  with  his  own 
command  ? 

Nothing  can  be  more  infamous  than  intellectual 
tyranny.  To  put  chains  upon  the  body  is  as  nothing 
compared  with  putting  shackles  on  the  brain.  No 
god  is  entitled  to  the  worship  or  the  respect  of  man 
who  does  not  give,  even  to  the  meanest  of  his 
children,  every  right  that  he   claims  for  himself. 

If  the  Pentateuch  be  true,  religious  persecution  is 
a   duty.      The    dungeons    of  the    Inquisition    were 


260  SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES. 

temples,  and  the  clank  of  every  chain  upon  the 
limbs  of  heresy  was  music  in  the  ear  of  God.  If 
the  Pentateuch  was  inspired,  every  heretic  should 
be  destroyed  ;  and  every  man  who  advocates  a  fact 
inconsistent  with  the  sacred  book,  should  be  con- 
sumed by  sword  and  flame. 

In  the  Old  Testament  no  one  is  told  to  reason 
with  a  heretic,  and  not  one  word  is  said  about 
relying  upon  argument,  upon  education,  nor  upon 
intellectual  development — nothing  except  simple 
brute  force.  Is  there  to-day  a  christian  who  will  say 
that  four  thousand  years  ago,  it  was  the  duty  of  a 
husband  to  kill  his  wife  if  she  differed  with  him  upon 
the  subject  of  religion  ?  Is  there  one  who  will  now 
say  that,  under  such  circumstances,  the  wife  ought  to 
have  been  killed  ?  Why  should  God  be  so  jealous 
of  the  wooden  idols  of  the  heathen  ?  Could  he  not 
compete  with  Baal  ?  Was  he  envious  of  the  success 
of  the  Egyptian  magicians  ?  Was  it  not  possible  for 
him  to  make  such  a  convincing  display  of  his  power 
as  to  silence  forever  the  voice  of  unbelief?  Did  this 
God  have  to  resort  to  force  to  make  converts? 
Was  he  so  ignorant  of  the  structure  of  the  human 
mind  as  to  believe  all  honest  doubt  a  crime  ?  If  he 
wished  to  do  away  with  the  idolatry  of  the  Canaan- 


SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES.  26 1 

ites,  why  did  he  not  appear  to  them  ?  Why  did  he 
not  give  them  the  tables  of  the  law  ?  Why  did  he 
only  make  known  his  will  to  a  few  wandering- 
savages  in  the  desert  of  Sinai  ?  Will  some  theo- 
logian have  the  kindness  to  answer  these  questions  ? 
Will  some  minister,  who  now  believes  in  religious 
liberty,  and  eloquently  denounces  the  intolerance  of 
Catholicism,  explain  these  things  ;  will  he  tell  us  why 
he  worships  an  intolerant  God  ?  Is  a  god  who  will 
burn  a  soul  forever  in  another  world,  better  than  a 
christian  who  burns  the  body  for  a  few  hours  in  this  ? 
Is  there  no  intellectual  liberty  in  heaven  ?  Do  the 
angels  all  discuss  questions  on  the  same  side  ?  Are 
all  the  investigators  in  perdition  ?  Will  the  penitent 
thief,  winged  and  crowned,  laugh  at  the  honest  folks 
in  hell  ?  Will  the  agony  of  the  damned  increase  or 
decrease  the  happiness  of  God  ?  Will  there  be,  in 
the  universe,  an  eternal  auto  dafe  ? 


XXIX. 
CONCLUSION. 

If  the  Pentateuch  is  not  inspired  in  its  astronomy, 
geology,  geography,  history  or  philosophy,  if  it 
is  not  inspired  concerning  slavery,  polygamy,  war, 
law,  religious  or  political  liberty,  or  the  rights  of  men, 
women  and  children,  what  is  it  inspired  in,  or  about  ? 
The  unity  of  God  ? — that  was  believed  long  before 
Moses  was  born.  Special  providence  ? — that  has 
been  the  doctrine  of  igmorance  in  all  a^es.  The 
rights  of  property  ? — theft  was  always  a  crime.  The 
sacrifice  of  animals  ? — that  was  a  custom  thousands 
of  years  before  a  Jew  existed.  The  sacredness  of 
life  ? — there  have  always  been  laws  against  murder. 
The  wickedness  of  perjury  ? — truthfulness  has  always 
been  a  virtue.  The  beauty  of  chastity  ? — the  Pen- 
tateuch does  not  teach  it.  Thou  shalt  worship  no 
other  God  ? — that  has  been  the  burden  of  all  re- 
ligions. 


SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES.  263 

Is  it  possible  that  the  Pentateuch  could  not  have 
been  written  by  uninspired  men  ?  that  the  assistance 
of  God  was  necessary  to  produce  these  books  ?  Is 
it  possible  that  Galileo  ascertained  the  mechanical 
principles  of  "  Virtual  Velocity,"  the  laws  of  falling- 
bodies  and  of  all  motion  ;  that  Copernicus  ascertained 
the  true  position  of  the  earth  and  accounted  for  all 
celestial  phenomena  ;  that  Kepler  discovered  his 
three  laws — discoveries  of  such  importance  that  the 
8th  of  May,  1618,  may  be  called  the  birth-day  of 
modern  science  ;  that  Newton  gave  to  the  world 
the  Method  of  Fluxions,  the  Theory  of  Universal 
Gravitation,  and  the  Decomposition  of  Lio-ht ;  that 
Euclid,  Cavalieri,  Des  Cartes,  and  Leibnitz,  almost 
completed  the  science  of  mathematics  ;  that  all  the 
discoveries  in  optics,  hydrostatics,  pneumatics  and 
chemistry,  the  experiments,  discoveries,  and  inven- 
tions of  Galvani,  Volta,  Franklin  and  Morse,  of 
Trevethick,  Watt  and  Fulton  and  of  all  the  pioneers 
of  progress  —  that  all  this  was  accomplished  by 
uninspired  men,  while  the  writer  of  the  Pentateuch 
was  directed  and  inspired  by  an  infinite  God  ?  Is  it 
possible  that  the  codes  of  China,  India,  Egypt, 
Greece  and  Rome  were  made  by  man,  and  that  the 
laws  recorded  in  the  Pentateuch  were  alone  given  by 


264  SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES. 

God?  Is  it  possible  that  ^Eschylus  and  Shakespeare, 
Burns,  and  Beranger,  Goethe  and  Schiller,  and  all  the 
poets  of  the  world,  and  all  their  wondrous  tragedies 
and  songs, are  but  the  work  of  men,  while  no  intelli- 
gence except  the  infinite  God  could  be  the  author 
of  the  Pentateuch  ?  Is  it  possible  that  of  all  the 
books  that  crowd  the  libraries  of  the  world,  the 
books  of  science,  fiction,  history  and  song,  that  all 
save  only  one,  have  been  produced  by  man  ?  Is  it 
possible  that  of  all  these,  the  bible  only  is  the  work 
of  God  ? 

If  the  Pentateuch  is  inspired,  the  civilization  of 
of  our  day  is  a  mistake  and  crime.  There  should  be 
no  political  liberty.  Heresy  should  be  trodden  out 
beneath  the  bigot's  brutal  feet.  Husbands  should 
divorce  their  wives  at  will,  and  make  the  mothers  of 
their  children  houseless  and  weeping  wanderers. 
Polygamy  ought  to  be  practiced  ;  women  should  be- 
come slaves  ;  we  should  buy  the  sons  and  daughters 
of  the  heathen  and  make  them  bondmen  and  bond- 
women forever.  We  should  sell  our  own  flesh  and 
blood,  and  have  the  right  to  kill  our  slaves.  Men 
and  women  should  be  stoned  to  death  for  laboring 
on  the  seventh  day.  "  Mediums,"  such  as  have 
familiar  spirits,  should  be  burned  with  fire.      Every 


SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES.  2  65 

vestige  of  mental  liberty  should  be  destroyed,  and 
reason's  holy  torch  extinguished  in  the  martyr's 
blood. 

Is  it  not  far  better  and  wiser  to  say  that  the 
Pentateuch  while  containing  some  good  laws,  some 
truths,  some  wise  and  useful  things  is,  after  all, 
deformed  and  blackened  by  the  savagery  of  its  time  ? 
Is  it  not  far  better  and  wiser  to  take  the  good  and 
throw  the  bad  away  ? 

Let  us  admit  what  we  know  to  be  true  ;  that 
Moses  was  mistaken  about  a  thousand  things  ;  that 
the  story  of  creation  is  not  true  ;  that  the  garden  of 
Eden  is  a  myth  ;  that  the  serpent  and  the  tree  of 
knowledge,  and  the  fall  of  man  are  but  fragments  of 
old  mythologies  lost  and  dead  ;  that  woman  was  not 
made  out  of  a  rib  ;  that  serpents  never  had  the 
power  of  speech  ;  that  the  sons  of  God  did  not  marry 
the  daughters  of  men  ;  that  the  story  of  the  flood 
and  ark  is  not  exactly  true  ;  that  the  tower  of  Babel 
is  a  mistake  ;  that  the  confusion  of  tongues  is  a 
childish  thing  ;  that  the  origin  of  the  rainbow  is  a 
foolish  fancy ;  that  Methuselah  did  not  live  nine 
hundred  and  sixty-nine  years  ;  that  Enoch  did  not 
leave  this  world,  taking  with  him  his  flesh  and  bones ; 
that  the  story  of  Sodom  and  Gomorrah  is  somewhat 


2  66  SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES. 

improbable  ;  that  burning  brimstone  never  fell  like 
rain  ;  that  Lot's  wife  was  not  changed  into  chloride 
of  sodium  ;  that  Jacob  did  not,  in  fact,  put  his  hip 
out  of  joint  wrestling  with  God  ;  that  the  history  of 
Tamar  might  just  as  well  have  been  left  out ;  that  a 
belief  in  Pharaoh's  dreams  is  not  essential  to  salva- 
tion ;  that  it  makes  but  little  difference  whether  the 
rod  of  Aaron  was  changed  to  a  serpent  or  not ;  that 
of  all  the  wonders  said  to  have  been  performed  in 
Egypt,  the  greatest  is,  that  anybody  ever  believed 
the  absurd  account ;  that  God  did  not  torment  the 
innocent  cattle  on  account  of  the  sins  of  their  owners ; 
.that  he  did  not  kill  the  first  born  of  the  poor  maid 
behind  the  mill  because  of  Pharaoh's  crimes  ;  that: 
flies  and  frogs  were  not  ministers  of  God's  wrath  ; 
that  lice  and  locusts  were  not  the  executors  of  his 
will ;  that  seventy  people  did  not,  in  two  hundred 
and  fifteen  years,  increase  to  three  million  ;  that 
three  priests  could  not  eat  six  hundred  pigeons  in  a 
day  ;  that  gazing  at  a  brass  serpent  could  not  extract 
poison  from  the  blood  ;  that  God  did  not  go  in 
partnership  with  hornets  ;  that  he  did  not  murder 
people  simply  because  they  asked  for  something  to 
eat ;  that  he  did  not  declare  the  making  of  hair  oil 
and  ointment  an  offence  to  be  punished  with  death  ; 


SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES.  267 

that  he  did  not  miraculously  preserve  cloth  and 
leather  ;  that  he  was  not  afraid  of  wild  beasts  ;  that 
he  did  not  punish  heresy  with  sword  and  fire  ;  that 
he  was  not  jealous,  revengeful,  and  unjust  ;  that  he 
knew  all  about  the  sun,  moon,  and  stars  ;  that  he 
did  not  threaten  to  kill  people  for  eating  the  fat  of 
an  ox  ;  that  he  never  told  Aaron  to  draw  cuts  to  see 
which  of  two  goats  should  be  killed  ;  that  he  never 
objected  to  clothes  made  of  woolen  mixed  with  linen; 
that  if  he  objected  to  dwarfs,  people  with  flat  noses 
and  too  many  fingers,  he  ought  not  to  have  created 
such  folks  ;  that  he  did  not  demand  human  sacrifices 
as  set  forth  in  the  last  chapter  of  Leviticus  ;  that  he 
did  not  object  to  the  raising  of  horses  ;  that  he  never 
commanded  widows  to  spit  in  the  faces  of  their 
brothers-in-law  ;  that  several  contradictory  accounts 
of  the  same  transaction  cannot  all  be  true  ;  that  God 
did  not  talk  to  Abraham  as  one  man  talks  to  another ; 
that  angels  were  not  in  the  habit  of  walking  about 
the  earth  eatine  veal  dressed  with  milk  and  butter, 
and  making  bargains  about  the  destruction  of  cities ; 
that  God  never  turned  himself  into  a  flame  of  fire, 
and  lived  in  a  bush  ;  that  he  never  met  Moses  in  a 
hotel  and  tried  to  kill  him  ;  that  it  was  absurd  to 
perform  miracles  to  induce  a  king  to  act  in  a  certain 


268  SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES. 

way  and  then  harden  his  heart  so  that  he  would 
refuse  ;  that  God  was  not  kept  from  killing  the  Jews 
by  the  fear  that  the  Egyptians  would  laugh  at  him  ; 
that  he  did  not  secretly  bury  a  man  and  then  allow 
the  corpse  to  write  an  account  of  the  funeral ;  that  he 
never  believed  the  firmament  to  be  solid  ;  that  he 
knew  slavery  was  and  always  would  be  a  frightful 
crime  ;  that  polygamy  is  but  stench  and  filth  ;  that 
the  brave  soldier  will  always  spare  an  unarmed  foe  ; 
that  only  cruel  cowards  slay  the  conquered  and  the 
helpless  ;  that  no  language  can  describe  the  murderer 
of  a  smiling  babe  ;  that  God  did  not  want  the  blood 
of  doves  and  lambs  ;  that  he  did  not  love  the  smell  of 
burning  flesh  ;  that  he  did  not  want  his  altars  daubed 
with  blood  ;  that  he  did  not  pretend  that  the  sins  of 
a  people  could  be  transferred  to  a  goat  ;  that  he  did 
not  believe  in  witches,  wizards,  spooks,  and  devils  ; 
that  he  did  not  test  the  virtue  of  woman  with  dirty 
water  ;  that  he  did  not  suppose  that  rabbits  chewed 
the  cud  ;  that  he  never  thought  there  were  any  four- 
footed  birds ;  that  he  did  not  boast  for  several 
hundred  years  that  he  had  vanquished  an  Egyptian 
king  ;  that  a  dry  stick  did  not  bud,  blossom,  and 
bear  almonds  in  one  night ;  that  manna  did  not 
shrink  and  swell,  so  that  each  man  could  gather  only 


Some  mistakes  of  moses.  269 

just  one  omer  ;  that  it  was  never  wrong  to  "  coun- 
tenance the  poor  man  in  his  cause  ;  "  that  God  never 
told  a  people  not  to  live  in  peace  with  their  neighbors  ; 
that  he  did  not  spend  forty  days  with  Moses  on 
Mount  Sinai  giving  him  patterns  for  making  clothes, 
tongs,  basins,  and  snuffers  ;  that  maternity  is  not  a 
sin  ;  that  physical  deformity  is  not  a  crime  ;  that 
an  atonement  cannot  be  made  for  the  soul  by 
shedding  innocent  blood  ;  that  killing  a  dove  over 
running  water  will  not  make  its  blood  a  medicine  ; 
that  a  eod  whQ  demands  love  knows  nothing  of 
the  human  heart ;  that  one  who  frightens  savages 
with  loud  noises  is  unworthy  the  love  of  civilized 
men  ;  that  one  who  destroys  children  on  account  of 
the  sins  of  their  fathers  is  a  monster  ;  that  an  infinite 
god  never  threatened  to  give  people  the  itch  ;  that 
he  never  sent  wild  beasts  to  devour  babes  ;  that  he 
never  ordered  the  violation  of  maidens  ;  that  he 
never  regarded  patriotism  as  a  crime  ;  that  he  never 
ordered  the  destruction  of  unborn  children  ;  that  he 
never  opened  the  earth  and  swallowed  wives  and 
babes  because  husbands  and  fathers  had  displeased 
him  ;  that  he  never  demanded  that  men  should  kill 
their  sons  and  brothers,  for  the  purpose  of  sanctifying 
themselves  ;  that  we  cannoi  please  God  by  believing 


1*]Q>  SOME    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES. 

the  improbable  ;  that  credulity  is  not  a  virtue  ;  that 
investigation  is  not  a  crime  ;  that  every  mind  should 
be  free  ;  that  all  religious  persecution  is  infamous  in 
God,  as  well  as  man  ;  that  without  liberty,  virtue  is 
impossible  ;  that  without  freedom,  even  love  cannot 
exist  ;  that  every  man  should  be  allowed  to  think 
and  to  express  his  thoughts  ;  that  woman  is  the 
equal  of  man  ;  that  children  should  be  governed  by 
love  and  reason  ;  that  the  family  relation  is  sacred  ; 
that  war  is  a  hideous  crime  ;  that  all  intolerance  is 
born  of  ignorance  and  hate  ;  that  the  freedom  of  to- 
day is  the  hope  of  to-morrow  ;  that  the  enlightened 
present  ought  not  to  fall  upon  its  knees  and  blindly 
worship  the  barbaric  past ;  and  that  every  free,  brave 
and  enlightened  man  should  publicly  declare  that  all 
the  ignorant,  infamous,  heartless,  hideous  things  re- 
corded in  the  "  inspired  "  Pentateuch  are  not  the  words 
of  God,  but  simply  "  Some  Mistakes  of  Moses." 


Prose-poems 

-AND- 

Selections, 

OBERT  .y      [WGERSOLL. 

Third  Edition,   Revised  and  Enlarged. 

R  handsome  Quarto,  conXaimng  oner  300  pages. 


THIS  is,  beyond  question,  the  most  elegant  volume  in  Liberal  literature.  Its 
mechanical  finish  is  worthy  of  its  intrinsic  excellence.  No  expense  has  been 
spared  to  make  it  the  thing  of  beauty  it  is.  The  type  is  large  and  clear,  the 
paper  heavy,  highly  calendered  and  richly  tinted,  the  press-work  faultless,  and  the 
binding  as  perfect  as  the  best  materials  and  skill  can  make  it.  The  book  is  in  every 
way  an  artistic  triumph. 

As  to  the  contents,  it  is  enough  to  say  that  they  include  some  of  the  choicest 
utterances  of  the  greatest  writer  on  the  topics  treated  that  has  ever  lived. 

Those  who  have  not  the  good  fortune  to  own  all  of  Mr.  Ingersoll's  published 
works,  will  have  in  this  book  of  selections  many  bright  samples  of  his  lofty  thought, 
his  matchless  eloquence,  his  wonderful  imagery,  and  his  epigrammatic  and  poetic 
power.  The  collection  includes  all  of  the  "  Tributes  "  that  have  become  famous  in 
literature  — notably  those  to  his  brother  E.  C.  Ingersoll,  Lincoln,  Grant,  Beecher  and 
Elizur  Wright;  his  peerless  monograms  on  "The  Vision  of  War,"  Love,  Liberty, 
Science,  Nature,  The  Imagination,  Decoration  Day  Oration,  and  on  the  great  heroes 
of  intellectual  liberty.  Besides  these  are  innumerable  gems  taken  here  and  there 
from  the  orations,  speeches,  arguments,  toasts,  lectures,  letters,  and  day  to  day  con- 
versations of  the  author. 

The  book  is  designed  for,  and  will  be  accepted  by,  admiring  friends  as  a  rare 
personal  souvenir.  To  help  it  serve  this  purpose,  a  fine  steel  portrait,  witli  autograph 
facsimile,  has  been  prepare  .1  especially  for  it.  In  the  more  elegant  styles  of  bindirg 
it  is  eminently  suited  for  presentation  purposes,  for  any  season  or  occasion. 

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Address    C.    F\    KARRELL,    Publisher, 
400  Fifth  Avenue,  New  v«rk  City. 


OTTTST       OUT  ! 

TH  K 

Ingersoll-  Field 

TX^cussion 


—  BETWEEN  — 


Robert  G.  Ingersoll 

—  AND  — 

Henry  M.  Field,  D.  D. 


-»■  <» »  »  <4- 


77  LL  intelligent  people  love  discussion  —  delight  in  word  encounters,  in  intellectual 
/l  combats.  The  North  American  Review  has  lately  been  the  arena  of  one  of  these 
mental  tournaments— the  discussion  between  Mr.  Ingersoll  and  Dr.  Field,  who  is 
editor  of  The  New  York  Evangelist  and  one  of  the  celebrated  Field  family. 

Intense  interest  has  naturally  followed  each  step  of  this  discussion  as  it  appeared 
from  month  to  month  in  the  Review.  Extra  editions  were  soon  exhausted,  and  the 
supply  was  always  short  of  the  demand.  To  satisfy  the  desire  to  have  these  articles 
in  complete  and  inexpensive  form,  the  publisher,  by  arrangement  with  the  Review, 
nas  printed  the  entire  series  in  one  volume. 

It  is  needless  to  say  that  it  is  lively  reading.  The  question  is  an  absorbing  one, 
and  will  probably  remain  so  even  after  the  arguments  pro  and  con  are  all  in.  Those 
who  say  that  Mr.  Ingersoll  never  brings  forward  a  new  argument,  that  his  views 
have  been  answered  over  and  over  again,  will  do  well  to  read  this  discussion,  and  to 
bear  in  mind  while  reading  it  that,  as  he  says,  "  An  argument  is  always  new — has  the 
dew  of  morning  upon  it — until  it  is  answered." 

Two  leaders  of  thought  are  here  arrayed  in  friendly  antagonism  —  one  the  ac- 
knowledged intellectual  giant  of  Freethought  in  this  century,  and  the  other  an 
accepted  champion  of  the  Church.  The  weapons  are  of  their  own  choice.  How  deftly 
wielded,  and  with  what  effect,  the  readers  on  each  side  will  determine.  It  is  certain 
that  intellectual  liberty  has  been  and  will  be  advanced  by  the  discussion,  and  that 
many  thousands  of  eager  spectators  will  come  to  this  book  to  witness  the  splendid 
combat. 

The  volume  is  a  large  octavo  of  ninety-six  pages.  Price,  in  cloth,  $1.00;  paper, 
50  cents. 

Orders  will  be  registered  and  filled  as  to  date  of  reception.  Sent  post-paid  on 
receipt  of  price,  or  in  quantities  by  express,  C.  O.  D.,  at  special  rates.    Address: 

C.   F\  FARRELL,  Publisher, 

400   FIFTH   AVE.,   NEW  YORK. 
(Only  authorized  Publisher  of  all  of  Mr.  Ingersoll's  Works.) 


IF 


4tR    Prose    Poem.K* 

By  Robert  G.   Ingersoll. 

*♦* 

Nothing  in  the  English  language  equals  this  master-piece  — 
nothing,  in  fact,  in  any  language. 

Like  all  the  wonderful  monograms  of  Mr.  Ingersoll,  it  is 
simply  perfect. 

It  portrays  every  era  and  phase  of  human  life— the  birth  — the 
rapture  of  motherhood  —  the  careless  joys  and  transient  griefs 
of  childhood  — the  passions  of  youth  —  the  ambitions  and 
struggles  of  manhood — the  creeping  shadows  of  age — the  de- 
crepitude— the  end. 

No  word  painting  ever  held  as  much  on  a  single  canvas. 
There  are  many  figures,  —  many  scenes — but  no  confusion,  no 
crowding.  Each  stands  out  in  clear  and  beautiful  outline,  and 
all  blend  in  the  harmony  of  a  finished  picture. 

The  publisher  takes  pleasure  in  producing  this  master-piece 
in  suitable  shape  for  the  wall,  the  cabinet,  the  mantel  or  the 
centre-table,  and  has  had  it  beautifully  printed,  in  large  type, 
on    heavy   card-board,    panel-shape,   with   beveled    gilt    edges. 

Sent  by  mail,  carefully  wrapped,  on  receipt  of  Fifty  Cents. 

Address   C.    P.    FARRELL,    NEW  YORK  City. 


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BS1225.8.I47 

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